[Bug 11682] under-specification of func-available-environment-variables and unc-available-environment-variable

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11682

--- Comment #14 from Daniela Florescu <dflorescu@mac.com> 2011-01-17 23:02:11 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #13)
> Dana, I don't really understand the amount of fuss this has generated. 


Liam,

I wouldn't have said much if defining those functions would not require adding 
even more complexity to an already overly complex language (changing the
dynamic context to add such operating system variables is not without
consequences
on complexity....).

And this for some functions that assume that the execution of an XQuery 
program is done on a SINGLE physical machine, which in 2011 is not only absurd,
and without long term architectural vision, but even against the core
philosophy 
that created XQuery in the first place.

XQuery has been envisioned in 1998 as a data processing language FOR THE WEB.

That's very unfortunate that in 2011 we have to go back to a single machine.

But I think we did the tour of the problem at this point. We need to move on.

Best
Dana



















 We did
> not put it in the language book. It's in the function library.
> 
> However... languages with access to environment variables include...
> 
> C (part of the core, required, standard libraru for ANSI and ISO C)
> C++ (same)
> 
> Scheme (get-environment-variable / getenv didn't make it into R6RS but appears
> to have been approved for addition to their next version)
> 
> Perl (via a built-in map; it was felt too important to be delegated to the
> POSIX module even though that's part of the standard distribution)
> 
> Python (via os.environ, a core required module)
> 
> Java, via System.getenv()
> 
> Scala (not surprising, as it runs on a JVM)
> 
> SQL implementations do appear to provide GETENV() even if it's not in any
> standard.
> 
> There are lots more, of course, but I don't see why I should spend time
> demonstrating something to you that you could answer yourself easily with a Web
> search.

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Received on Monday, 17 January 2011 23:02:13 UTC