Why was additional XML prefered over namespaces for overriding standard config?

[ozizka]

Hi,

this is kind of philosophical question about a topic which is slowly getting historical... anyway:

Why did JBoss choose to introduce yet another XML file for extending J2EE descriptors with the necessity to copy some elements only to identify what's being configured, when there was a possibility to simply add some XML namespace?

Something like

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ejb-jar version="3.0"
          xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
          xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/ejb-jar_3_0.xsd "
          xmlns:jboss="http://www.jboss.org/dtd/..."
>

   <enterprise-beans>
     <session>
       <ejb-name>MySessionBean</ejb-name>
      <jboss:custom-config value="" />
     </session>
   </enterprise-beans>
 </ejb-jar>

Thanks,

Ondra