[Bug 8217] New: [XSLT] Confusing text on function conversion rules for sequence constructors

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8217

           Summary: [XSLT] Confusing text on function conversion rules for
                    sequence constructors
           Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
           Version: Recommendation
          Platform: All
               URL: http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#dt-function-conversion-
                    rules
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: trivial
          Priority: P5
         Component: XSLT 2.0
        AssignedTo: mike@saxonica.com
        ReportedBy: zongaro@ca.ibm.com
         QAContact: public-qt-comments@w3.org


A colleague pointed out the following potentially confusing text to me. 
According to section 5.3 of XSLT 2.0,[1] "Except where otherwise indicated, the
actual value of an expression is converted to the required type using the
function conversion rules....  The relevant rules are those that apply when
XPath 1.0 compatibility mode is set to false."

The following paragraph then says, "This specification also invokes the XPath
2.0 function conversion rules to convert the result of evaluating an XSLT
sequence constructor to a required type (for example, the sequence constructor
enclosed in an xsl:variable, xsl:template, or xsl:function  element)."

Reading that, one might easily be lead to believe that when the function
conversion rules apply to an expression, only the rules with compatibility mode
set to false apply, but when they apply to a sequence constructor, the setting
of the compatibility mode for the sequence constructor is taken into account.

The only clue that compatibility mode of false always applies for sequence
constructors too is the fact that the words "function conversion rules" in that
second paragraph have a hyper-text link to the preceding paragraph.

To avoid confusion, I would suggest adding the following sentence after "or
xsl:function element)":  "Again, the relevant rules are those that apply when
XPath 1.0 compatibility mode is set to false."

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/#dt-function-conversion-rules


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Received on Friday, 6 November 2009 14:25:44 UTC