Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: xml namespaces

Author:Scott Sweeney
Posted:6/29/2000; 7:58:52 PM
Topic:xml namespaces
Msg #:18280 (In response to 18263)
Prev/Next:18279 / 18281

I'm just joining in on the RSS discussion, so I hope this is relevant, respectful, and not redundant...

I think the namespaces are horrendous if you are trying to use them from a traditional user/programmer perspective, when hand writing or reading them manually, but from a parser or computer perspective, from what I see, they can hold amazing value, expandability, and help "enhance the picture" if anything (..although bandwidth is another story), but I think it boils down to what your app needs today.

When a parser views namespaced tags, it can easily ignore them and abstract them from view, unlike a user. I can understand that the benefit of namespaces sure isn't helpful or apparent for most of todays XML apps because most (at least I would speculate) are user-oriented, manually-coded or structured, and used in isolated apps where cross-web-data joins aren't feasible, scalable or needed. But I think those joins (and ones that can be made dynamically) will be helpful down the road when the web advances to the whole "schema is the API" mantra, and the XML store stuff you're working on, Dave, becomes a reality.

PS - I'd love to hear how Ed is doing the combinations.




This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:55:33 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.