RE: [F&O] IBM-FO-037: Strange description of fn:unordered

I agree with Don's comment. 

Fn:unordered() is just a non-deterministic unordering of the passed in
sequence. The function is not a second order function as you imply. So
the semantics is very easy and simple. 

Best regards
Michael (speaking for himself)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: public-qt-comments-request@w3.org [mailto:public-qt-comments-
> request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Dimitre Novatchev
> Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 1:46 PM
> To: Don Chamberlin
> Cc: public-qt-comments@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [F&O] IBM-FO-037: Strange description of fn:unordered
> 
> 
> > (IBM-FO-037): Section 15.1.14 (fn:unordered): The summary begins
"This
> > function takes a sequence, or more typically, an expression that
> > evaluates to a sequence ...". This implies that a "sequence" is
somehow
> > different from "an expression that evaluates to a sequence."
Actually
> > there is no difference. The phrase beginning "or more typically"
should
> > be deleted.
> 
> I commented about the lack of meaning of this definition. If they
remove
> the phrase "or more typically, an expression that evaluates to a
> sequence", then this whole function becomes useless to them. Their
idea is
> that the argument *must* be an expression, which is not yet evaluated.
The
> fact that such an expression is passed as argument to fn:unordered
will
> tell the processor (!) that it is allowed not to preserve order and to
> produce an unordered result...
> 
> The purely formal problem with this function definition is that there
is
> no "expression" data type in the DM, therefore, they can only explain
it
> in plain English...
> 
> Of course, this is absolutely incorrect!
> 
> I propose once again that this function definition be removed from the
> document. All other arguments put aside, the mere failure of the
attempt
> to define it correctly is a very strong indicator that this is simply
not
> a function.
> 
> Dimitre Novatchev.
> 
> 
> __________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Search - Find what you're looking for faster
> http://search.yahoo.com

Received on Friday, 5 March 2004 05:28:43 UTC