RE: [xml-dev] The use of XML syntax in XML Query

At 06:00 PM 1/3/2002 +0000, Michael Kay wrote:
> > But the XML syntax for element constructors is not at all
> > confusing unless the query is embedded in an XML document.
>
>It's going to become very confusing when users try to generate something
>like
>
>   if (<a>2</a> < <b>3</b>)
>
>using tools that normally expect to output XML!

If the tool is outputting XML, then either:

1. The XQuery is embedded in an XML document that is being output, in which 
case computed element constructor syntax may be a better thing to generate,

or

2. The user is actually generating XQuery, not XML, and should not think of 
it as XML. In XSLT, that does involve some awkwardness if the user decides 
to use the angle bracket syntax for element construction, but the computed 
element constructor syntax is available in this case also.

So I do think it is true that tools that generate XQuery may choose to use 
computed element constructor syntax. That doesn't mean that users can't use 
the angle-bracket syntax, which users seem to like.

Jonathan

Received on Thursday, 3 January 2002 14:02:34 UTC