Can everyone be happy?

David Carlisle wrote:

> > We need some function f that takes an ns-attrib string and
> > a base URI (in the RFC 2396 sense) string and returns a
> > namespace name:  f(ns-attrib,baseURI) -> nsn.  Possible
> > function definitions include:
> >
> >   literal:     f(ns-attrib,baseURI) -> ns-attrib
> >   forbid:      f(ns-attrib,baseURI) -> ns-attrib
> >   absolutize:  f is defined by the algorithm in 5.2 of RFC 2396
> >                 and the baseURI is determined by 5.1 of RFC 2396
> >   fixed-base:  f is defined by the algorithm in 5.2 of RFC 2396
> >                 but the baseURI argument is ignored and a
> >                 constant base URI is used instead
> >
> > Note that the "deprecate" option isn't really an option in
> > this sense.
>
> I suggest  fixed-base.
>
> Actually I prefer literal, but I think fixed-base does address some
> valid concerns with literal, and it has at least some hope of
> consensus.

I agree that it has some hope of consensus.  In fact, I think it has an
excellent chance of consensus.   And it solves the most pressing problem:
what to do about relative URI references.

But it doesn't address another lurking issue: the dissatisfaction with
the uninterpretedness of namespace names that led TimBL to initiate these
discussions in the first place.   Here's the sketch of an idea of how we
might allow for interpretation of the namespace name without in any way
compromising the fixed-base convention.

I observe that it isn't sufficient to say that the namespace name
identifies (or might identify) metadata about the namespace.  You have to
specify the format of the metadata: DTD, schema, HTML description, or
whatever.   And the possibility remains,  as I and many others insist,
that the namespace name identifies no useful resource at all but is
merely a convenient and presumably unique identifier.

So suppose we introduce another attribute, which I'll call `nstype'.
Something like

    <elt xmlns:a="http://www.sushi.org/squid.schema" nstype:a="schema">

would indicate (obviously) that a schema describing the namespace whose
namespace prefix is "a" is to be found at
http://www.sushi.org/squid.schema.  For a namespace whose name identifies
nothing useful, the nstype attribute would be omitted -- and we'd have
precisely the current situation, augmented perhaps by the fixed-base
convention.

Paul Abrahams

Received on Wednesday, 21 June 2000 19:04:57 UTC