Re: XQuery as an interface for terminology/vocabulary servers

Hi Michael,

I am responding to the following message on behalf of the W3C XML Query 
Working Group, which has reviewed this response.

In message:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-xml-query-comments/2001Mar/0006.html

You ask the following:


 >  Would you consider changing the syntax slightly
 >  such that it allow for "source" rather than "document"?>
 >  This might allow it to be a more general-use
 >  language. I find it to be very close to what is
 >  necessary for vocabulary "servers", except the
 >  assumption that it is operating on a document
 >  --- rather than something more abstract such
 >  as a tree+nodes structure.
 >
 >  Anyhow, here is an example of what could be done:
 >
 >  <xquery-result-set>
 >  FOR $a IN distinct(source("diseases")//cardiac)
 >  RETURN
 >  	<concept>
 >  		<display-name>$a/text()</display-name>
 >  	</concept>
 >  <xquery-result-set>

Clearly, XQuery needs to be able to allow queries across repositories of 
documents. XQuery actually operates on an instance of the XML Query Data 
Model, which is basically an ordered forest. In general, a query that is 
executed against a repository does not currently use the document() 
function to identify the collection.

Logically, we might choose either to (1) let the document() function be 
defined such that it works on a collection of documents as well as a single 
document, or (2) come up with a second function for this purpose.

We appreciate your feedback on the XML Query specifications. Please let us 
know if this response is satisfactory. If not, please respond to this 
message, explaining your concerns.

Jonathan Robie
On behalf of the XML Query Working Group


Jonathan