[Xpath-ng] My favorite XPath language]

[Uche Ogbuji]

> Number three is mandating IEEE floating point for numbers,
> complete with the rules for NaNs and infinities.  This is
> fine for Java implementations where all the world is a
> 32-bit CPU with IEEE 754 support, but it's a bit of a
> headache for most other languages (like C89, where 1.0/0.0
> is "undefined behavior" instead of +Infinity).

I *hate* IEEE 754 as much as the next man, but I wonder what we would replace 
it with.


> > 2. What should be added to Xpath, and *why* can't we do without.
> > 3. Can't we create a better Xpath by taking things away?
> 
> I think we could do without big chunks of the expression
> language, or at least factor those out into an optional module.
> Many XML APIs use XPath as an embedded sublanguage (like
> regexps, SQL, etc.), and since the host language usually
> has its own collection of arithmetic and string processing
> facilities there's little need to duplicate them in XPath.

Hmm.  Again I wonder how all your suggestions square with backwards compat.  
Do you think this shouldn't be a core goal?


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
Python&XML column: 2. Introducing PyXML - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/09/25/p
y.html
The Past, Present and Future of Web Services 1 - http://www.webservices.org/ind
ex.php/article/articleview/663/1/24/
The Past, Present and Future of Web Services 2 - 'http://www.webservices.org/in
dex.php/article/articleview/679/1/24/
Serenity through markup - http://adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6807
Tip: Using generators for XML processing - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork
s/xml/library/x-tipgenr.html