Chameleon schemas in XHTML 2.0

I want to raise a formal objection to changing the namespace of XForms 
embedded in XHTML 2.0. This is not how namespaces are designed to work 
and it's going to cause massive problems for anyone writing any sort of 
software to process XForms, whether it's DOM, SAX. XSLT, XPath, or 
almost anything else.

XForms elements should be able to be recognized by their namespace 
alone. I should not have to care about the host language in which 
they're embedded.

If we're going to go changing the namespace for every host language that 
comes along, we might as well not have namespaces in the first place.

I do not believe it is necessary to somehow limit an XHTML 2.0 document 
to a single namespace. In fact, I would very much like to be able to 
include content from arbitrary namespaces in XHTML 2.0, valid or not, as 
long as it is well-formed.

I honestly am at a loss to explain why the HTML working group seems to 
think it's necessary to change the XForms namespace. The only thing I 
have heard suggested is that you think an extra xmlns:xf="..." will be 
too confusing.  Certainly, however, there's a lot more document authors 
will have to get used to in XHTML 2 than one extra namespace declaration.

-- 
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo@metalab.unc.edu
Java I/O 2nd Edition Just Published!
http://www.cafeaulait.org/books/javaio2/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0596527500/ref=nosim/cafeaulaitA/

Received on Friday, 27 October 2006 12:11:47 UTC