Re: well-known namespace prefixes

Hello Howard,
I've fixed Section 2 (Basics) of the XQuery document to clarify that the 
namespace prefixes xs, xsi, etc. are predeclared prefixes in the 
languages, not just "used in the document." These prefixes are also listed 
as predeclared in Section 4.11 (Namespace Declaration).
Thanks for your comment,
--Don Chamberlin




"Howard Katz" <howardk@fatdog.com> 
Sent by: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org
07/27/2004 04:44 PM

To
<public-qt-comments@w3.org>
cc

Subject
well-known namespace prefixes







I don't know if this is making a mountain out of a molehill, but I find 
the
description of the five predefined namespace prefixes in the main XQuery 
1.0
document [1] a bit confusing. In particular, the wording "This document 
uses
the following predefined namespace prefixes" is potentially misleading -- 
at
least it was for me the first time I encountered it -- in that the phrase
"This document uses ..." seems to imply that the prefixes are being used 
in
the specification document for pedagogic purposes only, while in fact the
prefix-uri associations are normative (ie, they're "well-known" and can be
used in queries w/out requiring the user to declare them in the prolog
first).

I haven't found any other clear, unambigous statement in any of the XQuery
documents that these five default associations are normative (tho there's 
at
least one related mention in the F&O document [2] for three of them);
possibly this is a good place to do so. Rather than saying "This document
uses ...", how about a less amibiguous statement such as, "The following
predefined namespace prefixes are "well-known" and can be used in queries
without declaring them explicitly in the prolog" or some such.

Lastly, just out of curiosity, are these default associations considered
examples of "statically known namespaces" in the static context [3]?

Howard

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#id-basics

[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-functions/#namespace-prefixes (note that
"defalt" is misspelled in the text)

[3] http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/#dt-static-namespaces