How are universal names represented?
There is no standard way to represent a universal name. However, three representations are common. The first representation keeps the XML namespace URI and the local name separate. For example, many DOM level 1 implementations have different methods for returning the XML namespace URI and the local name of an element or attribute node. The second representation concatenates the URI and the local name with caret (^). The result is a universally unique (see question 10.11) name, since carets are not allowed in URIs or local names. This is the method used by John Cowan’s Namespace SAX Filter (see question 9.2). For example, the universal name that has the URI http://www.tu-darmstadt.
