Comments (Was: Re: Namespaces (Was: Re: [Xpath-ng] Thoughts on work products))

[Jeni Tennison]

David Rosenborg wrote:

>> Unrelated issue: what do we use as comments? // and /**/ seem
>> inappropriate at best :) # is used for fragment IDs, but might be
>> contextually disambiguated. I'm just interested because I wanted to
>> insert a comment above and couldn't.
>
> {-- I could live with the XPath 2.0 syntax --}
>
> -- But I think dropping the braces is even better, simply less clutter --

The problem with using "--"s in XPath NG comments is that when XPath
NG is embedded in XML elements or attributes, it becomes impossible to
"comment out" the relevant section.

e.g. if you have:

  <xsl:value-of select="-- some comment here --
                        ..." />

Then you can't do:

  <!--
  <xsl:value-of select="-- some comment here --
                        ..." />
  -->

because then the XML comment contains "--", which isn't allowed.

I'd prefer a syntax for comments that we can embed in XML easily.
  
Cheers,

Jeni

---
Jeni Tennison
http://www.jenitennison.com/