Re: Updated finding: QNames in Content

/ Elliotte Rusty Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu> was heard to say:
| At 7:36 AM -0800 1/12/04, Paul Cotton wrote:
|
|>The XQuery/XPath specifications [1] use QNames to identify functions in
|>these languages.  Since this is another example of a different use of
|>QNames it might be good if the finding could state that this is okay.
|
| I would prefer the finding to state that this is not OK, as I've
| already expressed to the XQuery working group.
| <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-qt-comments/2003Nov/0189.html>
| The use of prefixes on functions and operators in XQuery is very
| confusing, especially since they tend not to be used at all. In fact,
| I found that when I simply removed all prefixes from functions and
| operators and all references to the functions and operators namespaces
| from my XQuery notes, everything was still accurate, still worked, and
| was more easily understood by students. If the prefixes aren't even
| necessary, why do we have them in the first place? I think this is a
| classic case of the mistaken urge to identify everything with a URI
| and namespace, whether it makes any sense to do so or not.

User defined functions have to be in a namespace. Perhaps this could
have (should have) been done some other way, but there's significant
historical precedent at this point. 

I think QNames in XPath expressions, for elements, attributes, and
function names, falls squarely into the "there are sometimes pragmatic
reasons for chosing short, lexical representations of more complex
names and accepts that QNames are an established mechanism for doing
so" category.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

-- 
Norman.Walsh@Sun.COM / XML Standards Architect / Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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