On Apr 24, 2005, at 6:39 AM, Thomas Broyer wrote:
We could narrow the XML Base "MUST" scope only to "the elements and attributes as specified by Atom itself, as well as those specified by extensions to Atom" and use a MAY or SHOULD for references found in HTML and XHTML (in text constructs and atom:content) as well as inline foreign content (in atom:content).
I don't think there should be any ambiguity here. The language should be changed to say
"When xml:base is used in an Atom document, it serves the function described in section 5.1.1 of RFC3986, establishing the base URI for resolving any relative URI references found within the effective scope of the xml:base attribute."
This makes it clear that if there is an xml:base whose scope includes <atom:content>, then yes indeed, the intent is to establish a base URI for the content. One of my main gripes about RSS is that it has no rules, so you effectively can't use relative URIs, thus ruling out a common good Web practice. I see clarity on this front as one of the practical advantages offered by Atom. -Tim
