Re: This Document Defines Two Namespaces (was Re: Combined set of issues ...)

Lisa Dusseault wrote:
> That was the full paragraph.  Here's the entire section of proposed text:

Sorry, I should have said "the full section".

> IANA Considerations
> 
>    WebDAV uses XML-based identifiers with XML namespaces.
>    The use of XML namespaces means that unique WebDAV property names
>    and XML elements can be quickly defined by any WebDAV user or
>    application, without requiring IANA action.
>     The property names and XML elements in this specification
>     are all in the "DAV:" namespace.  Creation of identifiers
>     in the "DAV:" namespace is controlled by the IETF.
> 
>   The URI registrations for opaquelocktoken and DAV URI schemes made in
>     RFC 2518 should still be considered active.

Let's see what we have in RFC2518:

--
18. IANA Considerations

This document defines two namespaces, the namespace of property names, 
and the namespace of WebDAV-specific XML elements used within property 
values. URIs are used for both names, for several reasons. Assignment of 
a URI does not require a request to a central naming authority, and 
hence allow WebDAV property names and XML elements to be quickly defined 
by any WebDAV user or application. URIs also provide a unique address 
space, ensuring that the distributed users of WebDAV will not have 
collisions among the property names and XML elements they create.

This specification defines a distinguished set of property names and XML 
elements that are understood by all WebDAV applications. The property 
names and XML elements in this specification are all derived from the 
base URI DAV: by adding a suffix to this URI, for example, 
DAV:creationdate for the "creationdate" property.

This specification also defines a URI scheme for the encoding of lock 
tokens, the opaquelocktoken URI scheme described in Section 6.4.

To ensure correct interoperation based on this specification, IANA must 
reserve the URI namespaces starting with "DAV:" and with 
"opaquelocktoken:" for use by this specification, its revisions, and 
related WebDAV specifications.
--

This certainly can be simplified, but we need to be careful here. Going 
back to the current proposal:

 >    WebDAV uses XML-based identifiers with XML namespaces.

Well, it uses identifiers consisting of namespace names and local names 
(as defined per XML-Infoset).

 >    The use of XML namespaces means that unique WebDAV property names
 >    and XML elements can be quickly defined by any WebDAV user or
 >    application, without requiring IANA action.

That's true, but I think the IANA section should be clear about what 
IANA needs to do with/for this spec, so I'd re-arrange the text to say 
what IANA needs to do first.

 >     The property names and XML elements in this specification
 >     are all in the "DAV:" namespace.  Creation of identifiers
 >     in the "DAV:" namespace is controlled by the IETF.
 >
 >   The URI registrations for opaquelocktoken and DAV URI schemes made in
 >     RFC 2518 should still be considered active.

Sorry? That would mean that these two namespaces are still defined as 
per RFC2518. Is this really intended????

Here's a proposal for rewriting the section, based on the original text 
and ideas from the current proposal:

--

XX. IANA Considerations

XX.1. URI schemes

This specification defines two URI schemes:

1) the "opaquelocktoken" URI scheme for the encoding of lock tokens, 
defined in Appendix XYZ, and

2) the "DAV" URI scheme, which historically was used in RFC2518 to 
disambiguate WebDAV property and XML element names and which continues 
to be used for that purpose in this specification and others extending 
WebDAV. Creation of identifiers in the "DAV:" namespace is controlled by 
the IETF.

To ensure correct interoperation based on this specification, IANA must 
reserve the URI namespaces starting with "DAV:" and with 
"opaquelocktoken:" for use by this specification, its revisions, and 
related WebDAV specifications.

XX.2. Other namespaces

This document also defines multiple namespaces, including the namespace 
of property names, the namespace of WebDAV-specific XML elements used 
within property values and the namespace of pre-/postcondition names. 
Namespaced XML element names (pairs of "namespace name" and "local name" 
as per [XML-Infoset]) are used for all of them, for several reasons. Due 
to the fact that XML namespace names syntactically use URIs, assignment 
of names does not require a request to a central naming authority, and 
hence allow identifiers to be quickly defined by any WebDAV user or 
application.  Therefore, no actions on behalf of IANA are required to 
manage these namespaces.


--

Feedback appreciated,

Julian

Received on Monday, 31 October 2005 21:52:49 UTC