Base-less fears (was Moving On...)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim Berners-Lee [mailto:timbl@w3.org]

> Re-issue namespace spec saying:-
> 
> * Confirm that the namespace attribute is a URI-reference
> * Point out that that this implies that litteral comparison and URI
> comparison are
>   equivalent so long a  relative URIs are not used;
> * using relative URI references is  a bad idea, because 
> existing software
>    does different things with them.

I would be very pleased if you could explain how this could be made to work
in light of the objections I raised in
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000May/0511.html and
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000May/0577.html, and to which
John Cowen responded with what I believe is the highest praise: "This is
IMHO a *very* strong argument." in
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/xml-uri/2000May/0578.html (hopefully
that will pique enough interest to follow the links :-).

In that posting I argue that your statement "using relative URI references
is a bad idea, because existing software does different things with them" in
practice is equivalent to "using relative URI references may cause your
document to cease to be namespace-legal XML in certain contexts."

This quacks like "forbid" in that it breaks existing documents.

I'd appreciate a response from you on this, it probably missed your notice
in the flood.  Perhaps a new thread name will help :-).

- Jonathan Marsh
  Microsoft

Received on Thursday, 1 June 2000 19:46:15 UTC