- From: Paul W. Abrahams <abrahams@valinet.com>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 10:48:09 -0400
- To: "Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>
- CC: xml-uri@w3.org
"Simon St.Laurent" wrote: > At 07:27 PM 6/22/00 -0400, Paul W. Abrahams wrote: > >Ah!!! But you didn't replace the really troublesome paragraph, which is the > >definition of a namespace name and the strange words it contains about > >something being "not a goal". I think the text you've just suggested has to > >be considered in conjunction with the replacement for the definition of a > >namespace name. (I scribbled a replacement for that text a while back.) > > You're definitely right; I should have kept a local copy of Namespaces in > XML on my laptop - I wrote that from a quick copy/paste off the Web - not > too quick, since I've had 14.4 connections on this trip. Maybe we can > unite my replacement with your replacement? OK, here's the text that does that: In Namespaces in XML, replace: [Definition:] URI references which identify namespaces are considered identical when they are exactly the same character-for-character. Note that URI references which are not identical in this sense may in fact be functionally equivalent. Examples include URI references which differ only in case, or which are in external entities which have different effective base URIs. [Definition:] URI references which identify namespaces are considered identical when they are exactly the same character-for-character. Note that URI references which are not identical in this sense may in fact be functionally equivalent and vice-versa. Examples include URI references which differ only in case, or which are in external entities which have different effective base URIs. Applications which process documents containing namespaces identified by relative URI references may use their own knowledge of context to absolutize those references, but such processing must not be performed by parsers comparing namespace values to determine attribute name uniqueness. and replace: [Definition] The attribute's value, a URI reference, is the namespace name identifying the namespace. The namespace name, to serve its intended purpose, should have the characteristics of uniqueness and persistence. It is not a goal that it be directly usable for retrieval of a schema (if any exists). An example of a syntax that is designed with these goals in mind is that for Uniform Resource Names [RFC2141]. However, it should be noted that ordinary URLs can be managed in such a way as to achieve these same goals. [Definition] The attribute's value is the namespace name identifying the namespace. It must have the form of a URI reference, although for the purposes of this specification the namespace name is treated as an uninterpreted character string. To serve its intended purpose, that URI reference should be chosen so as to be unique and persistent. An example of a syntax meeting that requirement is that of Uniform Resource Names [RFC2141]. However, it should be noted that ordinary URLs can be managed in such a way as to achieve these same goals. Other specifications and applications may choose to attach their own interpretations to the namespace name and to place additional requirements on its form or interpretation. (URI references are used in this context because they allow such additional interpretations.) Paul Abrahams
Received on Friday, 23 June 2000 10:48:36 UTC