Re: XQuery 1.0 - 3.12.3 and 3.12.5

Hi Andrew,

> The cast expression of 3.12.3 and the constructor function of 3.12.5
> seem to be essentially duplicating the same functionality.
>
> It isn't immediately obvious to me why such duplication should be
> necessary or appropriate, particularly since the cast expression
> seems sometimes/always simply to add the words "cast as" before what
> would otherwise be a constructor function.
>
> Is there a compelling reason for the continuing existence of this
> seeming duplication? Or am I missing something obvious?

We have to have the full "cast as" form because otherwise it wouldn't
be possible for someone to create a value of a type in no namespace
whose name clashed with one of the built in functions or node tests,
such as "data" or "node".

The short forms, on the other hand, are a lot more convenient for the
common cases.

Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/

Received on Tuesday, 4 March 2003 11:07:49 UTC