RE: [xsl] Matching namespaces - one works, one doesn't ?

["Michael Kay" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I feel namespaces are unjustly given a bad rap and that they 
> play a critically-important role in information design.

Yes, they play a critically-important role, but no, the bad rap is not
unjustified. Namespaces are a pig for all sorts of reasons:

* they mean that a lexical fragment of XML can't be understood in isolation
from its context

* the system can't tell which namespaces in an XML document need to be there
and which are noise

* it's never clear to what extent the choice of namespace prefix is
significant

* namespaces sometimes look like attributes and sometimes they don't

* the common use of "http" to name things that have nothing to do with HTTP
confuses the uninitiated

* there's no versioning story

And perhaps most important of all:

* they make most XML specifications and software three times more
complicated than they need to be

So it's not surprising when some people decide not to use them.

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