RE: XQuery Normalization

> 
> There seems to be some curiosity in the normalization of the 
> double slash 
> operator in XPath expressions (XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 
> formal semantics 
> draft), which is normalized as follows:
> 
> ["//" RelativePathExpr]Expr    ==    
> [fn:root( self::node() ) "/" descendant-or-self::node() "/" 
> RelativePathExpr]Expr
> 
> Without any predicates, these expressions, indeed return the 
> expected result. 
> However, when an index is applied after the // operator, for instance:
>     //a[2],
> 
> a problem arises.

This is indeed true, by design, and is the same as XPath 1.0. The result is
only unexpected, of course, if you have the wrong expectations.

Michael Kay