Re: Binary Data in XML

Michael Kay (M.H.Kay@eng.icl.co.uk)
Wed, 30 Sep 1998 18:35:03 +0100


>Tim Bray scripsit:
>
>> Suppose I wrote up a NOTE, should occupy less than one
page, proposing
>> a reserved attribute xml:packed with, for the moment,
only two
>> allowed values, "none" and "base64".

A legalistic niggle, which I am sure Tim is aware of more
than anyone: "Names beginning with the string 'xml'
[case-blind] are reserved for standardization in this or
future versions of this specification".

XML-related standards such as Namespaces, XLink have already
broken the letter of this rule; but it doesn't seem
appropriate that anyone who thinks of a nice XML idea and
wants to propose it for standardisation should automatically
have rights to this namespace, even if he is a co-author of
the standard!

Some W3C process needed here...

Mike