Robin Berjon wrote:
On Nov 26, 2009, at 15:07 , Lachlan Hunt wrote:
Jonathan Watt wrote:
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that Web content shouldn't be
able to process XML that uses xml:id using script and present the
processed information to the user using content and semantics
that *does* "belong on the Web".
Anyway, please also note that xml:id was just the example that
drew my attention to this defficency in querySelector. It's an
example, nothing more. The deficiency is my focus here.
I really do not understand what use case you are trying to address.
It appears that you are trying to find a solution to a problem that
does not exist.
That's because you're not reading what Jonathan has been saying. He
said xml:id was just the example that drew his attention to the fact
that the selectors API can't do namespaces.
Yes, I know what he said. The point is that since he agrees that xml:id
can't be used in practice on the web, and because even if it could, the
ID selector would be good enough, it's not really a compelling,
real-world use case for *why* namespace resolution is needed. And other
than xml:id, he didn't clearly describe any other use cases at all.
He points out, rather correctly, that there is no reason that Web
content shouldn't be able to process XML and present the processed
information to the user.
The question is not and should not be about proving why it shouldn't be
able to process XML with namespaces. The question is about why is it
worth spending any more time, money and effort than we already have
developing a solution for namespace prefix resolution? That is the
question that namespace proponents have continually failed to address,
and is why I have so far not deemed the issue worthy of significantly
more of my time.
The lack of namespace resolution in selectors is extremely annoying
because it means that one has to switch between selectors (if only
for classes support) and the XPath APIs for namespace support
whenever one tries to do, you know, one of those real-world things
where you have to aggregate data from multiple sources that might not
be talking to one another.
Please clearly explain what "one of those real-world things" are, where
selectors without namespaces is inadequate. In fact, if you could show
some real world examples of where sites are switching from selectors api
to xpath for the namespace support, or using some other work around,
that would go a long way towards understanding what the use cases are,
and what problems really need to be solved, as well as help in
determining whether or not the problems are significant enough to be
worth addressing.
--
Lachlan Hunt - Opera Software
http://lachy.id.au/
http://www.opera.com/
