L3 Core: "this", "reference" and 'given" nodes muddled in description of compareDocumentPosition and related constants from Curt Arnold on 2004-01-07 (www-dom@w3.org from January to March 2004)

From: Curt Arnold <carnold@houston.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2004 00:29:56 -0600
To: www-dom@w3.org
Message-ID: <3FFBA764.3080704@houston.rr.com>

 From returns of compareDocumentPosition:

    Returns how the given node is positioned relatively to this node
    (i.e., "the reference node").

 From constants:

    DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING: The node follows the reference node.

The first sentence would indicate that "this node" and "reference node" 
are synonyms.  However, the second sentence expects "the node" to be 
distinct from "reference node".

I'd recommend using "this node" (the node on which the method is 
invoked) and "other node" (the node passed as a parameter) and remove 
mentions of "given" and "reference" nodes in this context.  Like:

Returns how the other node is positioned relative to the node on which 
the method is invoked.

DOCUMENT_POSITION_FOLLOWING: The other node follows this node.

Received on Wednesday, 7 January 2004 01:29:58 UTC