qt-2004Feb0418-01: [XQuery] 'local' namespace

Hi Martin,

This is a response from the XML Query Working Group, which has
considered your request (which was possibly meant only as a
question?):

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/2004Feb/0418.html

The local namespace was introduced to clarify what namespace locally
declared functions are found in.

If a function call or function declaration is not prefixed, then it is
in the default function namespace. If the query does not set the
default function namespace explicitly, then it is the namespace of the
Functions and Operators library, which makes it convenient to call
these functions.

But this led to an inconsistency when users declare functions without
a prefix, which was the most common way to do so. Clearly, the
functions written by a user in a given query should not belong to the
Functions and Operators namespace. Clearly, the conventions used to
specify the name of a function should be the same for a function
declaration or a function call found in the same module.

So unprefixed functions were a problem in the default configuration of
XQuery. We felt that many beginning users are confused enough about
namespaces that they would not know how to decide what URI to declare
if we made them declare their own, so we predeclared a namespace for
local functions found in the main module.

Please let me know if you feel this resolution is unacceptable.

Thanks!

Jonathan

On behalf of the XML Query Working Group

Received on Tuesday, 24 August 2004 23:28:14 UTC