comments on xmlns() scheme

How should the xmlns() scheme be used to specify the default namespace?

XBRL taxonomy linkbases contain XLink extended links. These linkbases may
contain thousands of locators whose xlink:href attributes point to specific
elements in specific namespaces. My reading of the XPointer drafts is that
they would require the repetition of the xmlns() scheme part in every href
in the file.

I think it is unfortunate that the XPointer drafts are XML Namespace and XML
Schema aware enough to see a problem, but not aware enough to reuse the
devices of those specifications, choosing instead to reinvent them.
Namespace prefix resolution is well handled through the xmlns: attributes.
All XPointer has to do to leverage this work is to state that the semantics
of a QName in XPointer content be resolved using these mechanisms, exactly
as element and attribute names are.

This proposal would eliminate the need to restate the xmlns mapping in every
XPointer, which will bloat many forms of namespace aware documents. It would
also make my first question easy to answer.

Cheers,
David vun Kannon
Chair, XBRL Specification Working Group
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Received on Monday, 19 August 2002 13:27:51 UTC