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Bug 29898 - [XP31] Prepublication check of XP31: Front Matter
Summary: [XP31] Prepublication check of XP31: Front Matter
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: XPath / XQuery / XSLT
Classification: Unclassified
Component: XPath 3.1 (show other bugs)
Version: Candidate Recommendation
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jonathan Robie
QA Contact: Mailing list for public feedback on specs from XSL and XML Query WGs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2016-10-04 10:28 UTC by Michael Kay
Modified: 2016-11-04 15:23 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description Michael Kay 2016-10-04 10:28:06 UTC
1. Abstract. Needs revisiting. I suggest:

XPath 3.1 is an expression language that allows the processing of values conforming to the data model defined in [XQuery and XPath Data Model (XDM) 3.1]. The name of the language derives from its most distinctive feature, the path expression, which provides a means of hierarchic addressing of the nodes in an XML tree. As well as modeling the tree structure of XML documents, the data model also allows the manipulation of atomic values such as integers, strings, and booleans, and sequences that may contain both references to nodes in an XML document and atomic values. XPath 3.0 introduced functions as a new kind of item, and XPath 3.1 now adds maps and arrays. An important motivation for adding maps and arrays is to enable support for data represented using JSON syntax. All these constructs are supported by expressions in the XPath 3.1 language and functions in its function library (see [F&O]).

A list of changes made since XPath 3.0 can be found in I Change Log.

2. Status. I won't comment on this as we normally do all the specs together.

3. Introduction para 3. This really won't do as a definition of "host language". Suggestion:

XPath is designed to be embedded in a host language such as [XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 3.0] or [XQuery 3.1: An XML Query Language]. [Definition: A *host language* for XPath is a language or specification that incorporates XPath as a sublanguage and that defines how the static and dynamic context for evaluation of XPath expressions are to be established.]

4. Intro para 4. Because the subject of this document is XPath 3.1 I think it would be better to recast the first sentence "XQuery Version 3.1 is an extension of XPath Version 3.1" as "XPath 3.1 is a subset of XQuery 3.1".

5. The intro has a single paragraph with definitions of the three terms "XPath 3.0 processor", "XPath 2.0 processor", and "XPath 1.0 processor". But there seems to be no definition of "XPath 3.1 processor", which is rather strange. The existing three definitions could comfortably be dropped; the terms are only used once, in the compatibility appendix, where their meaning is obvious.

6. Still in the intro, below the specimen productions, we read: "The productions should be read as follows: A static function call consists of..." But there's no way we can know that the production FunctionCall is about *static* function calls specifically. Delete "static".
Comment 1 Josh Spiegel 2016-11-04 15:23:19 UTC
Fixed.  For the abstract, I used a simpler version of what you wrote.  Please review and reopen if necessary.  I have also asked Jonathan to review.