LC-1565 Use of escape characters in XPath expressions

Dear Mohamed,
 
Thanks you for your comments on the DISelect last call [1]. In your mail you raise a number of points. 
 
This particular response deals with the duplicate example you spotted. DIWG has identified this comment as
 
LC-1565 Use of Escape Characters in XPath Expressions
 
As is described in section 1.3 on Document Conventions, escaping is required when XPath expressions are used within XML. The passage in the document reads:
 
"Expressions in the examples used in this document are based on [XPath 1.0] <http://www.w3.org/TR/cselection/#ref-xpath> . This syntax requires that specific characters be escaped appropriately for use within XML processors. This quoting is used explicitly throughout the document."
 
The problem is that the characters < and > have special meaning to XML parsers wherever they are found (even within strings). This is a consequence of XML being an application of SGML.
 
While DIWG has sympathy for the view that avoiding escapes would aid readability, unfortunately it is not allowed by the syntax requirements of XPath in XML.
 
Consequently, DIWG must resolve to make no changes in response to this comment since DISelect complies with the requiremenst of XPath in XML.
 
I hope you will feel able to accept this disposition of the comment and to post your acceptance on this list?
 
Very best wishes.
 
Rhys Lewis
 
 
[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-diselect-editors/2007JanMar/0000.html <blocked::http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-diselect-editors/2007JanMar/0000.html> 
<blocked::http://www.w3.org/TR/dial/>