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Re: [xsl] Re: removing a specific namespace declaration

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Hi,

At 04:02 PM 11/8/2009, Eliot wrote:

On 11/8/09 2:15 PM, "G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Fine ... but just remember an unused namespace is supposed to be
> benign to XML-based applications.
>
>> It's still a little unclear to me why this approach requires a
>> namespace declaration in the element
>> (namespace="{namespace-uri(.)}"), as I would have thought the
>> explicit copying of namespace nodes would have taken care of it,

Unexpected (and unneeded) namespace declarations can be a problem for
DTD-validated documents where not all elements provide the namespace
declaration attributes. Thus a namespace declaration emitted on an element
the DTD didn't provide for will result in an invalid document.

This, plus also softer reasons.

By design, XML passes through the hands of many people who haven't been schooled in its deeper mysteries, and who don't know what namespace declarations are and whether they should be alarmed by them, especially when they are littered throughout a document. Namespace discipline (including namespace cleanup and avoiding namespace clutter) can be very useful and helpful from a systems management perspective even if pointless and unnecessary from a processing perspective.

I think Ken's choice of the word "benign" here is interesting. Unused namespace declarations are benign the way warts are benign. Do they really matter? Probably not, unless they matter to you -- or unless it matters to you if they matter to someone else. :-)

Cheers,
Wendell

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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mulberry Technologies, Inc.                http://www.mulberrytech.com
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Suite 207                                          Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD  20850                                 Fax: 301/315-8285
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