suggestion - use ";" for ExprSequence

Using "," separator for both argument in a FunctionCall and the
sub-expressions in an ExprSequence causes an ambiguity, resolved
as explained in the draft.  It would be cleaner to use a separate
operator, and I think ";" is very natural.  It is commonly used
as a "statement separator" in other languages; this usage is
related, and could be viewed as a generalization.  If XQuery
gets extended with update operators, then the ";" operator
can do that as well.  Basically, any side effects in the
first operand of ":" are carried out before the second operand
of ":" is evaluated.  Using ";" also works with declarations
(typoe-, value-, or namespace-); a declaration is viewed as
an expression that evaluates to an empty sequence.
-- 
	--Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://www.bothner.com/per/

Received on Monday, 9 July 2001 18:56:16 UTC