EXPath Archive Module

A new draft EXPath module specification (*Archive*), to manipulate 
archive file formats, is announced, and is available at

    http://expath.org/spec/archive

This module is intended to replace (and generalise) the previous ZIP 
module of 2010, which we believe has not seen much real use. The 
specification contains a complete set of function definitions and use 
case examples, including generating EPUB documents, reading and 
analysing JAR files and extracting ZIP files to a file system.

The specification draft contains a number of issues that will need 
discussion and addressing by the EXPath community, not least of which is 
how such a module (and future modules) are positioned with respect to 
new features in XLST/XPath 3.0. In this case the use of maps as one of 
the module's interfaces increases coherence considerably, but of course 
precludes use in 2.0 implementations.

This specification is very much a /first draft/ (though reasonably 
complete) and we expect many comments and criticisms, and a number of 
redrafts before we achieve consensus. We look forward to your comments 
(which I'll begin to marshal into threads as they develop), both 
specifically in regards to the Archive module and those on the more 
general positioning of new EXPath modules in the XSLT/XPath 
specification space.

John Lumley, Christian Grün, Matthias Brantner, Florent Georges
-- 
*John Lumley* MA PhD CEng FIEE
john@saxonica.com <mailto:john@saxonica.com>
on behalf of Saxonica Ltd