RE: [xsl] Issue with datatypes and standarad namespaces

Subject: RE: [xsl] Issue with datatypes and standarad namespaces
From: "Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:51:23 +0100
> With these two namespaces defined on an xsl:stylesheet 
> element (XSLT 2.0)
> 
>  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema";
>  xmlns:xdt="http://www.w3.org/2005/04/xpath-datatypes"; 
> 
> Is it possible that, with some XSLT 2 processors, 
> xdt:anyAtomicType is a validly recognized standard datatype.

Yes. The normal W3C policy is to use temporary namespaces with working
drafts of a specification, and to stabilize the namespace when the Candidate
Recommendation comes out. Types like anyAtomicType were therefore in a
different namespace in each successive WD. Then, after the initial CR
document of Nov 2005, the WGs made the decision to move these types into the
XML Schema namespace, and they first appeared as such in the June 2006
reissue of the CR. So processors released before then were typically
supporting a changing set of URIs for this namespace, in some cases trying
to make life easier for users by supporting multiple URIs for the namespace
in the same release. As a result, it's not at all unusual to encounter
stylesheets (in books and articles, for example) that use the older URIs.
Hopefully this little nightmare is already starting to fade into history -
but we still see the old Microsoft WD-xsl namespace of 1998 occasionally, so
it can take a long time.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/

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