Re: Xpointer Questions

Hello Mark,

Thank you for your comments on the XPointer specification.  The Working 
Group has discussed them and produced the following resolutions:

At 02:23 PM 2/23/01 +0100, Mark Polman wrote:
>After reading the XML Pointer Language Version 1.0, I have
>several questions:
>
>1) In Section 5.3.4, two new tests for location selection are
>introduced: "point" and "range".
>
>Does anybody have an example of a situation in which these
>tests actually return a non-empty location set?
>
>The only one I can think of is self::point(), under the condition
>that the context location is a point.
>
>It seems to me that an axis can only preselect node-locations and
>point-locations (only in the case of a "self"-axis). How would it be
>possible to select ranges from these?

(We're still discussing this one.  We hope to provide a resolution in a few 
days.)

>  2) In Section 5.3.1, the axes of a point location are defined. What
>is the point of the last item: "A node-point's siblings...after the
>node-point", when before it is stated that the preceding-sibling and
>following-sibling axes are empty?

We have agreed to clarify by revising the spec as follows:

- Add to the first bullet: "Although a point's siblings are the children of 
the container node that are before or after the point, they are not 
accessible using the preceding or following-sibling axes, because they may 
not be nodes."

- Remove the last bullet.

>  Also, what is the definition of the "following" and "preceding" axes?

We have agreed to clarify by declaring them as empty in the first bullet.

>Are they delegated to the XPath semantics?

>  Also, is there a reason why items 3 and 4 explicitly refer to
>NODE-points instead of just points?

We have agreed to clarify by changing all instances of "node-point" to "point".

If you do not accept our resolution on any item, please let us know by 
responding to this message.  We are on a tight schedule, so please respond 
by 28 March.

Thanks,

         Eve
--
Eve Maler                                             +1 781 442 3190
Sun Microsystems XML Technology Development  eve.maler @ east.sun.com

Received on Thursday, 22 March 2001 12:24:25 UTC