Re: [xsl] Diagram of XPath axes

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 2012-05-24 08:58 -0400, you wrote:
> One additional question, please:
>
> Preceding nodes do not include ancestors, which I've thought is 
> odd.  It includes siblings, but not parent or grand-parent, etc.
>
> When looking at an XML file in an editor, ancestors surely seem to 
> be preceding where I am in the document.
>
> But perhaps "preceding" means nodes before "me" but not including 
> anything that contains "me".
>
> Is that a useful way to look at "preceding"?

When I talk about my diagram in the classroom, I also use the "me" 
approach and I use the following distinctions:

- the self axis is me
- the preceding nodes are all those nodes that start and end before I start
- the following nodes are all those nodes that start and end after I end
- the ancestor nodes are all those nodes that have started before me 
but not yet ended
- the descendent nodes are all those nodes that start after I've 
started and end before I end

... and that covers off all of the nodes in the document.  I cite the 
bizarre XML document above the diagram so that students can see the 
starting and the ending as I quote above.

I hope this helps.

. . . . . . . . . . Ken

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