The changing DSIG name space

I'm wondering about how specification evolution affects name spaces in
DSIG.

I recently received a document whose signature failed to verify, the
error being that the Signature element could not be found because the
name space had changed.

The document used:

	<Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/02/xmldsig#">

while the verifier expected

	<Signature xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/07/xmldsig#">

In the latest spec it's

	http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#

How does this work in the real world?  Assuming that the spec will not
be frozen forever, does the name space keep changing?  Doesn't this
affect interoperability?  Does the specification change, but the name
space stays the same?  Would the software have to keep an ever growing
list of name spaces it supports, and run down the list every time it's
looking for an element in the DOM tree?  Is basing the name on the
date typical?

Is there a name space naming guidelines document at W3C which could
give me some insight?

-- 
Ken Goldman   kgold@watson.ibm.com   914-784-7646

Received on Thursday, 18 January 2001 17:30:15 UTC