Re: The changing DSIG name space

I think the idea is that the namespace changes if the specification
changes in a sufficiently incompatible way.  It was also more
reasonable to change the namespace more often when the specifciation
was evoloving more rapidly.  Now that it has been approved on the
standards track of both the IETF and W3C, I think any future change
will be considred very carefully.

Donald

PS: While everyone should be using the latest spec, personally, if I
was implementing a robust XMLDSIG, I'd be tempted to match
"http://www.w3.org/2000/*/xmldsig#".

From:  Ken Goldman <kgold@watson.ibm.com>
Date:  Thu, 18 Jan 2001 17:29:36 -0500
Message-Id:  <200101182229.RAA37832@alpha.watson.ibm.com>
To:  w3c-ietf-xmldsig@w3.org

>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 20:44:08 UTC