[OAI-implementers] namespaces not resolving

[Ed Summers]

On Nov 9, 2007 3:10 AM, Leslie Carr <lac at ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
> The issue raised was not one of good practice, but whether an XML
> processor will validate the document or not. I don't believe that a
> non-resolving namespace URI should affect validation at all.

Granted, although I think Conal was responding to Simeon's assertion
in this thread that:

  The namespace URI (http://www.loc.gov/MARC21/slim)
  doesn't have to resolve to anything. In fact, some would
  argue that it is better if it doesn't.

I do not doubt that some would argue about it ... but they would be
disagreeing with the notion of namespace documents as expressed in the
AWWW [1].  Given that this is a SHOULD and not a MUST I agree it's
unlikely that a reasonable validator would fail validation based on
the absence of a namespace document -- but you could well imagine a
warning getting triggered.

IMHO it's important for the digital library community to be aware of
where and when it is diverging from current best practices on the
web--and to raise issues with the appropriate bodies (w3c tag, etc) to
change them where they can. It just makes the world-wide-web a saner
place.

//Ed