use Perl

So, if you're dealing with XML namespaces, like so:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
   xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/strict"
>
   <html:shunk>
     <xsl:wuggawugga>
       <html:stuff />
     </xsl:wuggawugga>
     <xsl:mukluk />
     <html:wugga />
     <xsl:mukluk />
   </html:shunk>
</xsl:stylesheet>

...then you can just make one of the namespaces the default so that you can omit the prefix for it, like so:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
   xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns    ="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/strict"
>
   <shunk>
     <xsl:wuggawugga>
       <stuff />
     </xsl:wuggawugga>
     <xsl:mukluk />
     <wugga />
     <xsl:mukluk />
   </shunk>
</xsl:stylesheet>

or:

<stylesheet version="1.0"
   xmlns     ="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/strict"
>
   <html:shunk>
     <wuggawugga>
       <html:stuff />
     </wuggawugga>
     <mukluk />
     <html:wugga />
     <mukluk />
   </html:shunk>
</stylesheet>

... where presumably you will have the default namespace be whichever one is most common in your document.

Of course, this is well-understood among all advanced superbeings of pure XML energy.

But what is less appreciated is that, for the nondefault namespaces, it may be a good idea to use a short and/or easy to type namespace prefix.

In other words, consider that this:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns    ="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/strict"
>
   <shunk>
     <xsl:wuggawugga>
       <stuff />
     </xsl:wuggawugga>
     <xsl:mukluk />
     <wugga />
     <xsl:mukluk />
   </shunk>
</xsl:stylesheet>

is the same as this, but just more concise:

<Q:stylesheet version="1.0"
   xmlns:Q="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
   xmlns  ="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/strict"
>
   <shunk>
     <Q:wuggawugga>
       <stuff />
     </Q:wuggawugga>
     <Q:mukluk />
     <wugga />
     <Q:mukluk />
   </shunk>
</Q:stylesheet>

The only difference is that the latter uses "Q" as the namespace prefix instead of "xsl". For the parse, it's the namespace name ("http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform") that matters, not the prefix ("xsl"/"Q").

I use "Q" because it's right next to ":" on my keyboard. It could just as easily be "_" or "x" or "é" or "φ" or "乒" or whatever "letter" you like. (Although clearly this could be abused, just like with short variable names in programs.)

Here ends your soul-shattering revelation for the day.