[Bug 8229] New: XPath Level 1's treatment of unqualified element names is dangerous

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8229

           Summary: XPath Level 1's treatment of unqualified element names
                    is dangerous
           Product: WS-Resource Access
           Version: PR
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Fragment
        AssignedTo: public-ws-resource-access-notifications@w3.org
        ReportedBy: gilbert.pilz@oracle.com
         QAContact: public-ws-resource-access-notifications@w3.org


The description of the XPath Level 1 expression language contains the
following:

"NOTE: If the element name is unqualified, i.e. appears without a namespace
prefix, then the element name MUST be matched against a matching element name
in the resource document, regardless of namespace bindings that are in effect,
including default bindings. This allows implementations to simply match element
names in the majority of cases. If namespace bindings are significant for all
elements, then qualified names MUST be used."

Oracle review comment: "this is asking for so much trouble. what if 2 elements
in different namespaces have the same local name? haven't we learned anything
from the failure that dos/windows case-insensitivity is?"

It's unclear whether the "If namespace bindings are significant . . ." sentence
applies to this case. In any case, requiring the client to know whether or not
there are multiple elements in different namespaces with the same local name
*before* they construct their expression creates a tighter coupling between the
client and the exact resource representation than we seem to have in mind.


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Received on Saturday, 7 November 2009 19:49:45 UTC