[Xpath-ng] FIXPath (XPath NG core) straw man draft posted

[Uche Ogbuji]

No no no.  I was not about to let the discussion die out here  :-)

I've been working on this here and there as time has allowed, but I thought it 
was better to just get out something respectable and make the refinements 
among the group, so I finished up a first draft of the XPath NG core this 
weekend.

http://uche.ogbuji.net/etc/030105/xpathng-strawman.html

Notes:

1) I chose the name "FIXPath" (Jeni's idea).  We can easily go back to "XPath 
NG core" if we prefer

2) I tried as much as possible to make this document self-contained.  That 
means I include almost all of XPath 1.0.  Now don't panic.  In order to cut 
down the work for readers, I marked all the paragraphs that involve additions 
or modifications from XPath 1.0 in light green background.  If you know XPath 
1.0 well enough, just skip through to the green blocks.

3) I added issues where they occurred to me, and marked them with a red 
background.  Let's please discuss the issues here and resolve them for future 
drafts (if this straw man is adopted as a good starting point).  Each issue is 
in an HTML div with a unique ID.  Unfortunately, this means you have to view 
source if you want to use the ID of the issue for tracking here.  By the next 
draft, i'll write an XSLT script that extracts the issue ID in a way readable 
from the rendered HTML.

4) I tried to capture all undecided points as issues.  I know I missed some, 
so if I have things one way in the draft, and there is no issue noting that it 
isn't set in stone, please don't be annoyed if you disagree with the choice I 
made.  This whole document is very much up for discussion, and I'll add issues 
for the next draft according to discussion here.  Just raise the things you 
disagree with on-list.

5) The numbering is all untouched from the XPath 1.0 spec.  I didn't have time 
to give this document its own consistent numbering.  Again, I plan to do that 
in the next draft using XSLT.

So the big question: what do folks think of using this straw man of mine as a 
staring point for the core spec?


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
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