[xquery-talk] Top N Most Common Mistakes

[Frans Englich]

Yes, what are they? What are the most common mistakes that novice, experienced 
a like, do when writing XQuery queries?

I have little contact with users and can therefore contribute poorly:

1. That axis steps uses the default element namespace, which possibly is set 
by a namespace binding on an enclosing element constructor. Hence the path 
expression automagically misses.

2. Expression precedence related to the return clause combined with variable 
references. In "... return 1 + $f", The variable $f, if bound in the parent 
let/for clause, is out of scope.

I suspect a couple of points related to axes can be found, perhaps especially 
related to navigation order versus document order.

On a broader more conceptual scale, what is the big challenge for learning 
XQuery, especially if having a C++/Java background? "I'd rather wait until 
XSL-T has turned into a real language, such that one can assign to 
variables," reveals how hard the functional approach of XQuery/XSL-T can be 
to grasp.



Cheers,

		Frans