XOM API for Processing XML with Java

[Elliotte Harold <elharo AT metalab.unc.edu>]

Blaine R Southam wrote:
> Miachael,
>
> I understand that breaking the interface contract is a bad thing.  But how
> is it that I would be breaking the interface contract?  The only thing that
> I'm doing is providing a different hardcoded value as the default.  Rather
> than using the default namespace of an empty string to the query method, I
> would be providing a default of my specific namespace.  It still conforms to
> the XQuery/XPath specification.

It sounds like you might misunderstand how XPath works, and that's what 
really worries me. In XPath 1.0 an expression such as foo/bar/baz the 
three names foo, bar, and baz are *always* in no namespace. It is not 
that there is a default namespace. There is no namespace, and even if 
there were foo, bar, and baz would still be in no namespace. In XPath 
1.0, unprefixed names are *never* in a namespace. This is not XOM. This 
is XPath; and while I don't always agree with the design of everything 
in XPath, I am certain more harm than good would be caused by deviating 
from the spec.

Perhaps you wanted instead to prebind a prefix in expressions like 
pre:foo/pre:bar/pre:baz? That might arguably not be de jure wrong; but I 
don't see how you could pick a standard prefix and a URL. In the long 
run, that seems more likely to confuse than requiring users to choose 
their own prefixes and explicitly map them.

--
Elliotte Rusty Harold  elharo AT metalab.unc.edu
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