RE: [xml-dev] Default namespaces are *evil*! (RE: [xml-dev] Global/Local attributes)

> Kian-Tat Lim wrote:

> The problems are:
> 
> 1) Without surrounding context, it is not possible to determine
> whether an unprefixed name belongs to no namespace or to the
> default namespace.
> 
> 2) There are two kinds of names: names belonging to no namespace
> and names belonging to a namespace.
> 
> Killing default namespaces only takes care of problem #1.
> 
> Killing "no namespace" names in namespaced documents takes care
> of both problems simultaneously.
> 
> Default namespaces are not evil; they are just a syntactic
> shorthand or minimization.  No-namespace names are the true evil.


I don't see the problem with #2; it's up to the application to deal
with. The fundamental problem with default namespaces is that it
complicates expanding QNames, a fact that has polluted layered specs as
illustrated.

-aaron
http://staff.develop.com/aarons