- From: John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com>
- Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 11:58:45 -0400
- To: Matt Sergeant <matt@sergeant.org>, "xml-uri@w3.org" <xml-uri@w3.org>
Matt Sergeant wrote: > No. Namespaces are names. Unique identifiers. Nothing more, nothing > less. They don't need to be resolved in any way shape or form. How are you > going to resolve this valid namespace uri: > > xmlns:ms="mailto:matt@sergeant.org?subject=XPathScript" Red herring. No one is calling for any change to this URI, since it is already absolute. Indeed, no "mailto:" URI can ever be anything but absolute. > > but what really makes it powerful and useful is that it makes the > > web of XML documents self-describing: whenever you get a document, > > you should be able to use the namespace identifiers to figure > > out what the author of the document meant by the vocabulary > > of tags and attributes used in the document. > > I completely disagree. The description or specification for the XML could > be available at the namespace, but in no way should the spec mandate that. "Use...to figure out" is not a synonym for "directly dereference". I can "figure out" that the address "1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington DC USA" refers to the U.S. White House without actually having to send snail mail there. -- Schlingt dreifach einen Kreis um dies! || John Cowan <jcowan@reutershealth.com> Schliesst euer Aug vor heiliger Schau, || http://www.reutershealth.com Denn er genoss vom Honig-Tau, || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan Und trank die Milch vom Paradies. -- Coleridge (tr. Politzer)
Received on Friday, 19 May 2000 11:59:15 UTC