[Bug 3380] [XPath] //45 returns what?

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=3380


mike@saxonica.com changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Component|Formal Semantics            |XPath
            Summary|[FS] //45 returns what?     |[XPath] //45 returns what?




------- Comment #2 from mike@saxonica.com  2006-06-24 08:42 -------
I have reclassified this as an XPath comment, since it is not specific to the
formal semantics.

I think it would be better if you asked questions about the language first on
an open list such as the xsl-list at www.mulberrytech.com. This forum is
intended for comments on the language specification documents, not for general
questions from users of the language.

The meaning of //45 is unambiguous. It means /descendant-or-self::node()/45,
which returns a sequence consisting of the number 45, repeated as many times as
there are nodes in the current document. 

It is probably not a very useful expression, but there are many legal
expressions that are not very useful, for example 0+0, or 1+1. There are
similar expressions that *are* useful, for example //count(*), and a language
should always allow a literal to be used in a context where an expression is
allowed, even if one can't see a practical use case for it.

Michael Kay
(personal response)

Received on Saturday, 24 June 2006 08:42:27 UTC