[Bug 3609] [XPath] Error XPST0017

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3609

           Summary: [XPath] Error XPST0017
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Candidate Recommendation
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows XP
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: XPath
        AssignedTo: chamberl@almaden.ibm.com
        ReportedBy: mike@saxonica.com
         QAContact: public-qt-comments@w3.org


The XPath error appendix defines XPST0017 as follows:

It is an error (the host language environment may define this error as either a
static error or a dynamic error) if the expanded QName and number of arguments
in a function call do not match the name and arity of a function signature in
the static context.

However, in the body of the text it is described unconditionally as a static
error.

There's a rather convoluted history here, relating to backwards compatibility.
Last week, in the resolution of bug #3608, the XSL WG resolved that a call to
an unknown extension function, when running in 1.0 mode, should indeed be a
dynamic error rather than a static error. However, we don't need this to be
stated in XPath: instead, we can use the artifice of adding all "unknown"
function names to the static context for the expression, binding them to a
function that raises a run-time error. This will be a different (XSLT-defined)
error code.

So as far as XPath is concerned, the parenthetical remark in XPST0017: 

(the host language environment may define this error as either a static error
or a dynamic error)

can be deleted.

Received on Saturday, 19 August 2006 08:38:07 UTC