[Bug 29898] New: [XP31] Prepublication check of XP31: Front Matter

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=29898

            Bug ID: 29898
           Summary: [XP31] Prepublication check of XP31: Front Matter
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Candidate Recommendation
          Hardware: PC
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: XPath 3.1
          Assignee: jonathan.robie@gmail.com
          Reporter: mike@saxonica.com
        QA Contact: public-qt-comments@w3.org
  Target Milestone: ---

1. Abstract. Needs revisiting. I suggest:

XPath 3.1 is an expression language that allows the processing of values
conforming to the data model defined in [XQuery and XPath Data Model (XDM)
3.1]. The name of the language derives from its most distinctive feature, the
path expression, which provides a means of hierarchic addressing of the nodes
in an XML tree. As well as modeling the tree structure of XML documents, the
data model also allows the manipulation of atomic values such as integers,
strings, and booleans, and sequences that may contain both references to nodes
in an XML document and atomic values. XPath 3.0 introduced functions as a new
kind of item, and XPath 3.1 now adds maps and arrays. An important motivation
for adding maps and arrays is to enable support for data represented using JSON
syntax. All these constructs are supported by expressions in the XPath 3.1
language and functions in its function library (see [F&O]).

A list of changes made since XPath 3.0 can be found in I Change Log.

2. Status. I won't comment on this as we normally do all the specs together.

3. Introduction para 3. This really won't do as a definition of "host
language". Suggestion:

XPath is designed to be embedded in a host language such as [XSL
Transformations (XSLT) Version 3.0] or [XQuery 3.1: An XML Query Language].
[Definition: A *host language* for XPath is a language or specification that
incorporates XPath as a sublanguage and that defines how the static and dynamic
context for evaluation of XPath expressions are to be established.]

4. Intro para 4. Because the subject of this document is XPath 3.1 I think it
would be better to recast the first sentence "XQuery Version 3.1 is an
extension of XPath Version 3.1" as "XPath 3.1 is a subset of XQuery 3.1".

5. The intro has a single paragraph with definitions of the three terms "XPath
3.0 processor", "XPath 2.0 processor", and "XPath 1.0 processor". But there
seems to be no definition of "XPath 3.1 processor", which is rather strange.
The existing three definitions could comfortably be dropped; the terms are only
used once, in the compatibility appendix, where their meaning is obvious.

6. Still in the intro, below the specimen productions, we read: "The
productions should be read as follows: A static function call consists of..."
But there's no way we can know that the production FunctionCall is about
*static* function calls specifically. Delete "static".

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Received on Tuesday, 4 October 2016 10:28:41 UTC