- From: Elliotte Harold <elharo@metalab.unc.edu>
- Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 09:58:27 -0500
- To: Jonathan Borden <jonathan@openhealth.org>
- CC: www-tag@w3.org, XML Developers List <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>
Jonathan Borden wrote: > A class has a (i.e. one) set or group of members. If a namespace URI > identifies a class then what is the set of members: > > a) the set of names in the namespace (for example) > b) the set of documents that validate to a given schema (for example) I don't buy it. First of all I don't think a namespace URI identifies the set of names in a namespace. That's simply not how namespace URIs are used. I've heard people assert that principle, but attempting to follow that idea leads them down a maze of twisty little passages, all different. In an XML document, a namespace URI identifies a local name as belonging to a particular namespace. That's a subtly different thing, but the difference is important. There is no one unique, fixed set of names in a namespace to be identified; and working from the assumption that there is leads to brittle software. Secondly, I don't think it matters if we use the namespace URI in clearly different contexts for different results. A URI in an xmlns attribute means one thing. The same URI typed into a browser's location bar means something else. And the same URI in a rddl:resource attribute is something else still. This bothers me not at all. I see no ambiguity or confusion. In fact, quite the opposite. Using the same strings in these different contexts indicates that there is a connection between them. -- 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 Sunday, 10 December 2006 14:58:38 UTC