Re: xlxp-dev: Do tumblers start at 0 or 1

Elliotte Rusty Harold wrote:
> 
> The XPointer spec doesn't seem to specify whether the first child of an
> element is /0 or /1?  Since the grammar allows /0 I'm inclined to suspect
> counting starts at 0, but it could simply be a case of a less prescriptive
> grammar than is possible.

I suspect the latter.  According to the spec, "/0" would locate the 0th
child element, "/1" the 1st child element. Elsewhere in the spec,
position-in-a-list always starts with 1, so I'm inclined to think that
there's no such thing as the "0th child element".

The semantics of tumblers might be clearer if an expansion to full
LocationPath syntax were given. e.g. each "/N" in a tumbler is an
abbreviation for "/child::*[position()=N]".

-Michael Dyck
 jmdyck@netcom.ca

Received on Monday, 2 August 1999 14:42:50 UTC