xml-lang & namespace: should "." be dumper from names?

CSS uses "." as a class selector.  It is also a natural character to use in other qualifier
circumstances: you use it when you do a WIDL too.  So I think we should drop it from the NAME 
characters for XML: it potentially causes ambiguity.

I know that xml-style is DSSSL-O. But that does not mean we should ignore CSS, or gratuitously
allow XML to be incompatible with CSS (even though the CSS choice of "." is admitedly unfortunate).

I suggest that XML should only use the following punctuation marks with the following conventions:
	:	to allow :: for namespace qualification, whether explicit or implicit
 	_	to represent spaces in compound names
	/	to allow MIME types to be used as names of notations directly
	-	to allow numbers, eg iso8859-1

As a side issue, is this too strange? Add to the NAME characters:

	( and )	to allow "casting" of name to a particular name or namespace
	
To explain the last one.  A name like
	(book)para  
casts para to mean "look in the namespace 'book' and find 'para'", which is the usage familiar from CONCUR.
A name like
	(book::paragraph)para
casts para to mean "lookin the namespace 'book', and find 'paragraph'", which is the usage familiar from
architectural forms.

This syntax reconciles, to some extent, architectural forms, CONCUR and is explainable like C casting.


Rick Jelliffe

Received on Wednesday, 18 June 1997 12:27:49 UTC