Namespace squatting: please don't

I'm looking over recent RDF developments, and
I wanted to find the namespace names of some
of the various RDF syntax proposals out there
so I could do a little XSLT hacking on them...

I just noticed the following:

[[[
 <!ENTITY rdf  'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#'>
 <!ELEMENT section ANY>
 <!ATTLIST section rdf:instance CDATA "">
]]]

-- 
http://www-db.stanford.edu/~melnik/rdf/examples/text.xml.rdf
Fri, 17 Dec 1999 00:17:04 GMT

That's inconsistent with the intended use of the namespace name
	http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#

So... like...

	Hey, You Kids, Get Off My Lawn!

	-- http://www.goddamn.com/content/lawn.cfm

This is like the U.S. saying

	A centimeter isn't really 1/2.54th of an inch;
	it's 1/4 of an inch.

What right does the U.S. have to say what a centimeter is?

If you want to make up new RDF namespaces, go for it!
But make up a new name for it, OK? That way, we
can write XSLT code (among other things) that deals
with the new dialects and the old dialects, and
doesn't get them confused.

If you want one that starts
with http://www.w3.org/2000/ , just ask; maybe
we'll give you one. There
are plenty of URIs out there; crunch all you want;
we'll make more. If you're in a pinch, send yourself
a mail message, and use its message-id
to make a mid URI. (see http://www.w3.org/Addressing/schemes#mid).


There's enough confusion about the RDF syntax without
the active developers spreading inconsistent info about the use
of the namespace name
	http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#
no?



-- 
Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/

Received on Thursday, 14 September 2000 18:58:16 UTC