Re: [xml-dev] The use of XML syntax in XML Query

Michael Kay wrote:

> 
> 
> Is there a possibility of a solution in which the XML-like syntax becomes
> pure XML, and is regarded as a preprocessor syntax, so that a query written
> as a well-formed XML document (using element constructors for elements,
> processing instructions for PIs, and comments for comments) can then be
> translated mechanically into an XQuery expressed as a Unicode string, which
> itself uses no XML-like constructs?
> 

An element constructor syntax can be XML compatible in two senses - (1) 
it *is* XML, and can be both read and processed as such (this being the 
after all what XML is all about) or (2) it is not XML, but doesn't 
interfere with XML and can be normally be embedded in XML without 
breaking the XML or resorting to legibility-reducing escaped syntax.

It seems to me that the "pseudo-XML" passes neither test, and Mike's 
proposal passes both.

Francis.

Received on Thursday, 3 January 2002 17:41:41 UTC