- From: Charles McCathieNevile <chaals@opera.com>
- Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:56:22 +0200
- To: www-tag@w3.org
Ian Hickson wrote > On Thu, 29 Jun 2006, Paul Prescod wrote: >> Without making the argument myself, I'll point you to some relevant >> information: > The document in question is specific to URIs that are being used as > _resource_ identifiers, not as namespace identifiers. The primary use of > anamespace URI is not to be dereferenced, it is to uniquely identify a > setof elements. So the concerns on that page are at most secondary here. > > The single most important criteria for a namespace name is to have it be > memorable. I've received complaints from authors that the XHTML namespace > is too hard to remember. I've also received requests from authors that I > ensure that the XBL namespace is not "as bad as the XHTML one". Your first paragraph belies the second one - the single most important feature of a namespace is that it is a unique identifier. "I have received complaints" is a statement that applies to almost any situation or permutation - I have a complaint for almost any approach to namespaces. The current data: URI is ludicrously non-mnemonic, and choosing a more useful one could be achieved even with the constraint of having to include two years and a colour name. THe fact that the URI can readily be dealt with in practice shows that it is possible for people who don't have an excellent memory for long apparently meaningless strings, which I suggest is further evidence that memorability isn't actually the most important characteristic. That said, it is useful. w3.org/2006/xbl is, IMHO memorable enough - the difficulty I find in hand-writing namespaces is in fact remembering whether the thing ends with a slash or not - which is why I automate the process of adding namespaces even when I am totally hand-editing (which is rare enough in itself). cheers Chaals -- Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group hablo español - je parle français - jeg lærer norsk chaals@opera.com Try Opera 9 now! http://opera.com
Received on Friday, 30 June 2006 09:27:20 UTC