RE: Namespaces 1.1 Last Call -- I18N WG comments

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Hi Richard,

The following response is informal and is not exhaustive.

> Here are the sections of the spec (2.2, 9, appendix B) relevant to
> your comments.
> 
> I hope the non-ASCII characters don't get messed up in the mail!
> 
> -- Richard
> 
> 2.2 Use of IRIs as Namespace Names
> 
> [Definition: IRI references which identify namespaces are considered
> identical if and only if they are exactly the same
> character-for-character.] This is described in greater detail, with
> examples, in B Comparing IRI References.

The definition of "exactly the same character-for-character" does *not*
belong in an appendix.  In particular, the definition should make clear 
that the string comparison should be preceded by the steps described in:

   3.3.3 Attribute-Value Normalization
   http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml#AVNormalize

[...]

> Appendix B Comparing IRI References
> 
> IRI references identifying namespaces are compared when determining
> whether a name belongs to a given namespace, and whether two names
> belong to the same namespace. The two IRIs are treated as strings, and
> they are identical if the strings are identical, that is, if they are
> the same sequence of characters. The comparison is case-sensitive, and
> no %-escaping is done or undone.
> 
> A consequence of this is that IRI references which are not identical
> in this sense may resolve to the same resource. Examples include IRI
> references which differ only in case or %-escaping, or which are in
> external entities which have different base URIs (but note that
> relative IRIs are deprecated as namespace names).
> 
> In a namespace declaration, the IRI reference is the normalized value
> of the attribute, so replacement of XML character and entity
> references has already been done before any comparison.

Three problems here:
-  it seems to be the first time normalization is mentioned
-  it is mentioned in passing
-  the type of normalization isn't specified

The last of these is particularly problematic, as the XML 1.1 CR
addresses also a completely different normalization:
   http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#sec2.13

> Examples:
> 
> The IRI references below are different for the purposes of identifying
> namespaces, since they differ in case:
> 
>   http://www.example.org/wine
>   http://www.example.org/Wine

It would be preferable to use the same examples as below, eg:

    http://www.example.org/rosé
    http://www.example.org/rosÉ

> The IRI references below are also all different for the purposes of
> identifying namespaces:
> 
>   http://www.example.org/rosé
>   http://www.example.org/ros%c3%a9
>   http://www.example.org/ros%c3%A9
>   http://www.example.org/ros%C3%a9
>   http://www.example.org/ros%C3%A9
> 
> If the entity eacute has been defined to be é, the start tags below
> all contain namespace declarations binding the prefix p to the same
> IRI reference, http://example.org/rosé.
> 
>   <p:foo xmlns:p="http://example.org/rosé">
>   <p:foo xmlns:p="http://example.org/ros&#xe9;">
>   <p:foo xmlns:p="http://example.org/ros&#xE9;">
>   <p:foo xmlns:p="http://example.org/ros&#233;">
>   <p:foo xmlns:p="http://example.org/ros&eacute;"> 

Regards,
Misha



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Received on Friday, 29 November 2002 14:23:12 UTC