Re: QT4CG-003-02: MK to propose a reformulation of fn:index-of() in terms of fn:index-where()

Michael Kay <mike@saxonica.com> writes:
>> That seems clear to me. Is the suggestion that it should be normatively
>> described this way, or only that this should be shown as an illustration
>> of its semantics?
>
> I personally like the approach of giving the rules in readable English
> prose, and then adding the phrase "More formally, the function returns
> the value of {some expression}."
>
> With this formulation, both the prose and the expression are
> normative, but it should be clear to the reader that the "more
> formally" exposition can be relied on to resolve any ambiguities in
> the prose.

Yes, that sounds good to me. I was trying to work out if providing the
expression implied that an implementation *must* implement it by
literally evaluating that expression. I think “more formally” clarifies
that the expression is for exposition not implementation.

> In the old joint WG, some XSL-WG members objected to such expositions
> relying exclusively on XQuery syntax, and insisted on an equivalent
> being provided in XSLT. I don't feel any strong need to continue that
> tradition.

Agreed.

                                        Be seeing you,
                                          norm

--
Norm Tovey-Walsh
Saxonica