- From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:05:16 -0400
- To: Norman Walsh <Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM>
- CC: public-xml-core-wg@w3.org, public-xml-id@w3.org
Norman Walsh wrote: > This is simply misleading. The name xml:id requires no additional > complexity over the name xmlid. By analogy, the concept of an > element's natural language or the significance of whitespace in the > element "is so basic and fundamental that it should be usable by > everybody" and *it is* with attributes named xml:lang and xml:space. > On the implementer side, I have worked on the issue of xml: attributes in three separate systems: JDOM, XOM, and Jaxen. It was a noticeable hassle in all three. Both JDOM and Jaxen got this wrong before I stepped in. XOM is probably the strictest of the three, and it has to do quite a bit of extra work to guarantee no one mismaps the xml prefix or namespace URI. Based on experience, I have no doubt I could find quite a few other shipping pieces of XML software that mishandle the xml prefix in one way or another. If I were to make the effort to compile such a list, would this convince you? As a user, it is almost always easier to use an unqualified name than a prefixed name. For xmlid, I simply need to say something like element.getAttributeValue("xmlid"); For xml:id, by contrast, one must say something like: element.getAttributeValue("id", "http://www.w3.org/1998/XML/namespace"); Frankly, I have to look up that string in Google every time I use it. With autocomplete in Eclipse, it's a little easier to type element.getAttributeValue("id", Namespace.XML_Namespace); but it's still more complex that simply asking for the attribute named xmlid. XPath is even trickier because you have to set up the namespace prefix bindings in a different scope (or not, details vary from one engine to the next.) xml:lang, xml:space, and xml:base have caused real difficulties for real users, including me. The difficulties are not insurmountable, but they're still painful. Most importantly, any causal developer who is not a full time XML wonk like we are will get this right. if we can make it simpler, we should make it simpler. xmlid is about as simple as we can make it. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@metalab.unc.edu XML in a Nutshell 3rd Edition Just Published! http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/xian3/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596007647/cafeaulaitA/ref=nosim
Received on Tuesday, 26 April 2005 01:05:22 UTC