[Bug 4855] [XPath] Undocumented incompatibility

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=4855





------- Comment #1 from mike@saxonica.com  2007-07-13 13:46 -------
Furthermore, rules 8 and 9 in appendix I.2 appear misplaced or incomplete. Rule
8 reads:

<quote>
8. The rules for converting numbers to strings have changed. These may affect
the way numbers are displayed in the output of a stylesheet. For numbers whose
absolute value is in the range 1E-6 to 1E+6, the result should be the same, but
outside this range, scientific format is used for non-integral xs:float and
xs:double values.
</quote>

This statement is equally true when XPath 1.0 compatibility mode is true, and
should therefore be in Appendix I.1

Rule 9 reads: 

<quote>
The rules for converting strings to numbers have changed. In addition to the
changes that apply when XPath 1.0 compatibility mode is true, when
compatibility mode is false the strings Infinity and -Infinity are no longer
recognized as representations of positive and negative infinity. Note also that
while the number function continues to convert all unrecognized strings to NaN,
operations that cast a string to a number react to such strings with a dynamic
error.
</quote>

This clearly invites the inference that when XPath 1.0 compatibility mode is
true, the strings Infinity and -Infinity are accepted as representations of
positive and negative infinity. However, there is no normative statement
anywhere that supports this inference.

Received on Friday, 13 July 2007 13:46:08 UTC