RE: (2 xpath questions)

[Andrew Kimball <akimball@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is an MSXML XPath parser bug that I've been meaning to fix.  According
to the BNF in the XPath spec, / and // should never be allowed at the end of
queries (well, except for /, the absolute query).

~Andy Kimball
MSXSL Dev

-----Original Message-----
From: Wendell Piez [mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, September 25, 2000 10:31 AM
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: (2 xpath questions)


Hello Taras,

At 11:52 PM 9/25/00 +0200, you wrote:
>> Neither "//"
>> nor ".//" is a valid XPath query.
>
>But *why* is "//" an invalid query? What are the rules for validity, and
>which ones get broken?
>
>Any what's wrong with ".//"? This works with MSXML (not that *that* means
>something), and will return the same as "descendant-or-self::node()" for
the
>context node.

Well, if MSXML lets you do ".//", yes, that's a bug.

"//" is short not for "/descendant-or-self::node()", but for
"/descendant-or-self::node()/" (note the slash at the end).

That's why "//leaf" works -- "/descendant-or-self::node()leaf" wouldn't
work, but "/descendant-or-self::node()/leaf" would (it's short for
"/descendant-or-self::node()/child::leaf"
>
>I really hope I'm wrong though, since I'm going to buy your book this week
>;-)

Yep, you are, you can buy Mike's book safely.

Regards,
Wendell


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Wendell Piez                            mailto:wapiez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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