Namespace of the xmlns Attribute

Hi,
   Is the xmlns attribute supposed to be put into the 
http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/ namespace, just like other attributes with 
the xmlns: prefix, or into no namespace like any other attribute without 
a prefix?

The spec states [1]:
| The prefix xmlns is used only to declare namespace bindings and is by
| definition bound to the namespace name http://www.w3.org/2000/xmlns/.

That seems to indicate that only those with the prefix do, but I've 
found 3 implementations, including Firefox, Opera and the SAX parser 
[2], that all put it into that namespace without a prefix.

So, is my reading of the spec correct and all 3 of these implementations 
non-conforming, even though they seem to be interoperable on this issue; 
or are the implementations correct?

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xml-names-20060816/#xmlReserved
[2] 
http://www.saxproject.org/apidoc/org/xml/sax/helpers/NamespaceSupport.html
http://sax.cvs.sourceforge.net/sax/sax2/src/org/xml/sax/helpers/NamespaceSupport.java?view=markup#l_666

-- 

Lachlan Hunt
http://lachy.id.au/

Received on Sunday, 26 November 2006 07:27:26 UTC