DN-FO-08: 15.1.10 fn:distinct-nodes from Dimitre Novatchev on 2003-06-23 (public-qt-comments@w3.org from June 2003)

From: Dimitre Novatchev <silvan@teleweb.at>
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 19:56:27 +0200
To: <public-qt-comments@w3.org>
Message-ID: <BMEIIGKKPKJPBGIBOOGKCEAICCAA.silvan@teleweb.at>

DN-FO-08: 15.1.10 fn:distinct-nodes

This function is of little use because:
 “The order in which the distinct nodes are returned is implementation
dependent”.

The programmer will not be able to find the answer to the following two
questions:

	1.  Which nodes and in what order are exactly returned?
	2.  What should we do if we need to preserve order in the result?

Suggested solution:
	Change the semantics of the function to return each first in document order
	node having a distinct value (e.g. the EXSLT definition of
set:distinct() ).

Dimitre Novatchev.

Received on Monday, 23 June 2003 13:41:25 UTC