Hi Ben,
This sounds like an XML question to me, which when asked on an XML list
may yield better responses.
A namespace is defined as a URI. That is a very general form and
included the URN and the URL specifications. The 'http:' version is not
mandatory in whatever way, but falls under the "URL" type of URI.
Microsoft, and I believe OASIS as well sometimes, rather choose URNs
instead (like: "urn:microsoft:excel"). There are pros and cons for
either of them.
Whether you use 'http' is up to you. You can use 'file' for that matter,
or 'didgeridoo'. You are right in that it does not resemble a physical
resource.
The most heard reason for using 'http' + domain name is because the http
protocol is already defined to be globally unique. So, if you have to
choose a namespace and you want to make sure that there are no name
clashes, your best bet is to use the http protocol, which is widely
known and conveniently fits the requirements. Not so with URNs. Which is
why often companies internally choose URNs and for public namespaces
choose http URLs (but, compare Microsoft, this is not a requirement and
is a matter of taste, really).
Note that relative URLs are discouraged, but they are still allowed.
Much more can be said about pros/cons and naming. I personally, after
getting used to it, have found it rather convenient to use http URLs and
it saved me many headaches of having to think of yet another naming
convention.
Many hints and best practices about namespaces are found here:
http://www.xfront.com/BestPracticesHomepage.html
From my point fo view it is just a tag or label which could be named
No, it is not a tag or label. You may compare it with an instruction
space, language name or scope (but all fail to cover namespaces,
really). The namespace prefix can be compared to a tag or label, and can
be chosen freely, regardless of the namespace itself.
Cheers,
-- Abel Braaksma
http://www.nuntia.nl
Ben Stover wrote:
Whenever I looked into XSLT stylesheets with namespace declarations I see
ALWAYS a scheme like
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";
or more general
xmlns:foo="http://www.somedomain.com/foobarlabel";
This is somehow confusing because the namespace has nothing to do with a WWW
Hyperlinks/URLs.
>From my point fo view it is just a tag or label which could be named
xmlns:foo="aabbccdd"
as well
Or is there somewhere a specs which requires a "http...." declaration
What is the reason why all the coders use "http...." URL like namespace names ?
Ben
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