Removing xml namespace prefix

Dear WG,

I'm working on ACTION-3412: "Fix spec to remove need for xml namespace 
prefix" (http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/WG/track/actions/3412).
IIRC, the idea behind this action was to simplify the authoring of 
content for SVG beginners, removing the need for prefixes (xlink:, xml: 
...).

There are currently 3 attributes that use the xml namespace prefix:
- xml:base
- xml:lang
- xml:space

For the xml:base attribute, we have recorded Issue 62 in the current 
draft, which says:
"Are we happy to keep promoting the use of ‘xml:base’? Is it a use case 
worth trying to include a more HTML-like syntax for – the ‘base’ 
element? We anyway need to define somewhere what effect the HTML ‘base’ 
element has on any SVG document fragments."
So what should I do here?
a) keep the attribute but place it in the no namespace
b) keep the attribute in the xml namespace and add one in the no 
namespace with the same reference to XML base, clarifying potential 
conflicts
c) deprecate the attribute and introduce the base the element as in the 
HTML spec [3].
d) keep the attribute for XML elements and introduce the base the 
element as in the HTML spec. This is what is done in the HTML 5 spec, it 
has the <base> element and the xml:base attribute is also allowed, but 
only on XML elements [2].

I think option d) would be preferable for consistency with HTML.

For the xml:lang attribute, the definition currently references XML 1.0. 
Should I remove the need for the namespace prefix but keep the reference 
to the XML specification. Or should we introduce the lang attribute in 
no namespace as in the HTML 5 spec [1] and keep both?

For the xml:space attribute, it has already been deprecated in the SVG 
spec, to be replaced by the white-space property. I don't think it's 
necessary to remove the xml namespace for this one.

Cyril

[1] 
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#the-lang-and-xml:lang-attributes
[2] 
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#the-xml:base-attribute-(xml-only) 
<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#the-xml:base-attribute-%28xml-only%29>
[3] 
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/document-metadata.html#the-base-element 


-- 
Cyril Concolato
Maître de Conférences/Associate Professor
Groupe Multimedia/Multimedia Group
Telecom ParisTech
46 rue Barrault
75 013 Paris, France
http://concolato.wp.mines-telecom.fr/

Received on Thursday, 11 July 2013 14:58:54 UTC