[Bug 20639] XPath provides insufficient "glue" (modularity)

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=20639

--- Comment #4 from Roger Costello <costello@mitre.org> ---
> Are you proposing a new requirement for the next version of XPath?

Yes, definitely. The requirement is for modularity, the ability to create
reusable parts that can be glued together.

> XPath was never intended to be modular

Why not? XPath is the ideal language for modularizing, as it so incredibly
portable.

Please see chapter 7 of "Pearls of XSLT and XPath 3.0 Design" [1] for an
example of an XPath program. Although it is a powerful and useful program, it
is monolithic and not modular due to the severe limitations of the current
XPath design.

> I strongly concur with comment #2. XPath was never 
> intended to be a complete programming language

Whether it was an explicit requirement or not, whether it was done knowingly or
unknowingly, XPath is now a programming language. I offer this as evidence:

1. XPath functions
2. Sequence of statements
3. Input and output

So XPath is a programming language, but with poor modularity. Let's complete
the job and make it a modular programming language.


[1] http://www.xfront.com/Pearls-of-XSLT-and-XPath-3-0-Design.pdf

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Received on Friday, 11 January 2013 17:11:47 UTC