Re: [Caml-list] Namespace proposal: XML variant

[Jeffrey Palmer <jeffrey.palmer@acm.org>]

On Friday 30 August 2002 01:02 pm, Alessandro Baretta wrote:
> I thoroughly dislike any "package ~= directory" solution,
> yet I think a namespace construct should be present in the
> language in order to allow interoperability between
> different projects with different naming conventions. I
> propose a scheme à la XML, where namespaces are URIs
> belonging to the person or organization which releases the
> associated code.
>
> I propose to add an optional namespace construct to
> explicitly associate namespace URIs with namespace names.
>
> namespace MyBigProject = "http://alexbaretta.com/big_project/"
>
>

Eeek!

Please, let's not entertain any of the rampant stupidity that the W3C seems so 
mired in. I've always thought that the concept of using URIs for namespaces, 
parameter settings, etc., was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. I 
mean, let's be honest here - HTTP is a network _protocol_, and it has nothing 
to do with anything namespace or parameter related. The thing that really 
irks me about the whole scheme is that most of the time these aren't even 
_valid_ URIs (i.e., inaccessible).

I'm all for a hierarchical namespace that's not related to the filesystem (In 
Java it always ended up causing headaches for large projects - compilers that 
"intelligently" put your compiled code in the correct package directory, 
etc.). It seems that the question of segmenting libraries according to 
directory should be a decision that's left up to the implementor, as it is 
currently.

All of this is, of course, my own opinion, so take it with the corresponding 
pinch of salt.

Cheers,

	- j


-- 
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

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