Re: Fixed base

> I think it's pretty intuitive to folks that have been
> using the Web for a while that the dc
> prefix is associated with the same thing that
> the link points to,

There has never been any evidence that there was an intention or
desire that the namespace spec should generate a new class of XML
document whose effective element names depend on context.

The current namespace rec goes ro some lengths to ensure, via
the literal comparison specification, that this does not happen.

> I don't see any motivation
> for it (other than the fact that there are
> implementations that don't grok relative URI references
> at all, which I don't find compelling.)

The fact that existing software implements the namespace rec as
written isn't the main reason for keeping it that way, it
is because no one has demonstrated any reason for having element names
depend on context.

The only substantive argument raised against the current spec in this
entire debate is that namespaces named with relative URI are not
amenable to RDF assertions. The "literal base" proposal is a big shift
from the current spec, in order to address this concern. I think it
deserves a more thorough investigation than dismisal on the basis of
"ugliness".

David

Received on Tuesday, 20 June 2000 17:58:46 UTC