XML by Example

The Problem Namespaces Solves

XML is extensible. So it says in the name: eXtensible Markup Language.

The problem is that extensibility does not come free. In a distributed envi-

ronment, extensibility must be managed to avoid conflicts. Namespaces is a

solution to help manage XML extensibility.

Namespace can be defined as a mechanism to identify of XML elements. It

places the name of the elements in a more global context: the namespace.

The namespace recommendation, published by the W3C, is available at

www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names.

The namespace recommendation is relatively thin. The concepts are not dif-

ficult, either. Unfortunately, this means that ...