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

Dimitre:
Thank you for your comment.  We have had a long series of discussions
over fn:distinct-nodes.  Some felt it was not very useful, others wanted
different semantics for ordering the result.  In the end the WGs decided
to remove the function and provided a user-defined function which
implements one ordering semantic.  Users who want different result
orderings can write their own function using this function as a guide.


All the best, Ashok

> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org [mailto:public-qt-comments-
> request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Dimitre Novatchev
> Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 10:56 AM
> To: public-qt-comments@w3.org
> Subject: DN-FO-08: 15.1.10 fn:distinct-nodes
> 
> 
> 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 Tuesday, 7 October 2003 08:09:22 UTC