[XQuery] SAG-XQ-005 Serializing Arbitrary Sequences

SAG-XQ-005 Serializing Arbitrary Sequences

We don't think that the mechanism for serializing an arbitrary sequence
described in section 2 of the Serialization specification meets any known
user requirement.

We do think that there is a requirement for an interoperable serialization
format for an arbitrary sequence, and that this should be defined. We think
that the requirement is for a format that wraps each item in the sequence in
an XML wrapper providing information about the type, the value, and in the
case of nodes, the name of the node. For example, an attribute node might be
serialized as

<res:attribute name="my:att" type="my:shoesize" value="7.3"/>

In the case of elements and documents, the tree rooted at that node would be
serialized. The format would be extensible to allow implementation-defined
attributes that represent the identity of nodes, allowing the information to
be used for a subsequent update, or for creating hyperlinks.

(Note, technically we are talking here about a representation of an
arbitrary sequence in the form of a document. Serializing that document is
entirely orthogonal).

Michael Kay
for Software AG