Re: History: Question on C14N list of nodes instead of subtrees

r/JBoyer@pureedge.com/2002.01.23/15:15:35
>Finally, as to the speed issue that the originator is experiencing, I'd
>say he is suffering from a non-optimized implementation.  The reason is
>that an O(n) traversal of the nodes of a parse tree is sufficient for
>including all such nodes in a node-set.  Since all members of the
>node-set will be rendered in a serialization, the cost is O(n).  Thus,
>the cost of putting all nodes in a node-set should (or can at least) be
>commensurate with serialization.  If it is taking progressively longer
>to calculate the node-set as the XML document grows, then the XPath
>implementation needs to be optimized.  Alternately, we only require
>behavior equivalent to the evaluation of the (//. | //@* |
>//namespace::*) expression.

The cost is more like O(n log(n)) because our use of XPath
as a per-node filter often requires evaluating, for each
node in the document, something along the lines of:

  count(id('to-be-signed') | ancestor-or-self::node()) =
    count(ancestor-or-self::node())

Here, ancestor-or-self is going to be an O(log(n)) operation.

In the originator's case he is trying to do an XPointer
and winding up with:

URI="", XPath=
count((here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//. |
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//@* |
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//namespace::*) |
self::node()) =
count((here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//. |
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//@* |
ere()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//namespace:: *))

This is O(log(n)) per node in the document (and you have to admit
that there is going to be a hefty constant in front of that O),
which is painful as the document size grows.

One option (off the top of my head, so I've not given it mich
thought) would be to introduce a new XPath intersection transform:

<Transform Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116#intersection">
  <XPath>
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//. |
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//@* |
here()/ancestor::aida:eDocument[1]/child::aida:signedContent[1]//namespace::*
  </XPath>
</Transform>

The result of this would be the intersection of the input node
set and the node set that results from evaluating the transform.

This would be entirely XPath based (no need for XPtr), and
would drop things to O(n) (with a significantly-reduced
constant) for doing signature-relative operations.

Merlin


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Baltimore Technologies plc will not be liable for direct,  special,  indirect 
or consequential  damages  arising  from  alteration of  the contents of this
message by a third party or as a result of any virus being passed on.

This footnote confirms that this email message has been swept by
Baltimore MIMEsweeper for Content Security threats, including
computer viruses.
   http://www.baltimore.com

Received on Thursday, 24 January 2002 11:20:34 UTC