Bryan Rasmussen writes:

> Should there be an xmlns:blank="" perhaps to actively qualify 
> the non-namespace qualified elements?

Well, while this could perhaps have been done, the namespaces 1.1 
Recommendation is very clear on this point.  From [1]:

"The empty string, though it is a legal IRI reference, cannot be used as a 
namespace name."

furthermore:

"The use of relative IRI references, including same-document references, 
in namespace declarations is deprecated."

So, "" is by design not usable as a namespace name.  If "" were a 
namespace name, its use would be deprecated at very least because it would 
be a relative URI.  Furthermore, there's already a ton of software 
deployed that understands the above as doing something else. [2]:

"The attribute value in a namespace declaration for a prefix MAY be empty. 
This has the effect, within the scope of the declaration, of removing any 
association of the prefix with a namespace name."

If the above syntax were used, then we'd need another way to unbind a 
namespace declaration. [2] 

For all those reasons, my personal opinion is that this isn't going to 
happen. 

Noah

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names11/#iri-use
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-names11/#scoping

--------------------------------------
Noah Mendelsohn 
IBM Corporation
One Rogers Street
Cambridge, MA 02142
1-617-693-4036
--------------------------------------





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