[MNG-8537] Maven 4 namespace should not change

**[Elliotte Rusty Harold](https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/ViewProfile.jspa?name=elharo)** opened **[MNG-8537](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-8537?redirect=false)** and commented

Just noticed that Maven 4 has a new namespace URL. The old namespace was

http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0

The new one is

http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.1.0

Putting version numbers in namespaces is a known XML antipattern because it makes it extremely difficult and inconvenient to write tools that process both, even when they are much the same. XSLT, DOM, XQuery, JDOM, etc. — really any XML aware tool — is going to have problems with this.

Model version 4.1.0 is not a new and different schema that completely breaks with the past. Most old elements from 4.0.0 are still present and still mean exactly the same thing: groupId, artifactId, name, dependency, and most others. There are new elements but that doesn't imply a new namespace. Adding a new namespace is asserting that all the elements are different.

IMHO Maven 4 should not change the namespace URL.

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**Issue Links:**
- [MNG-8639](https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MNG-8639) Check namespaces when reading XML models