Controlling the order of XML namepaces

Question

I\'m having a problem getting the \"xmlns\" to appear first in the root attribute list.

Im getting this:

Answer 1

^{Because sometimes the right answer is to say, no, don't do that...}

Per W3C Namespaces in XML Recommendation, section 3 Declaring Namespaces:

[Definition: A namespace (or more precisely, a namespace binding) is declared using a family of reserved attributes. Such an attribute's name must either be xmlns or begin xmlns:. These attributes, like any other XML attributes, may be provided directly or by default. ]

Therefore, the order of namespace declarations, like the order of any attributes, is insignificant.

So, no conformant XML tool or library will care about the order of namespace declarations, and neither should you.