[xquery-talk] min max and mix

Ihe Onwuka ihe.onwuka at gmail.com
Mon Feb 10 04:18:37 PST 2014


On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 12:05 PM, David Lee <dlee at calldei.com> wrote:
> ====================================================
> Cripes. It's not that far fetched that
>
> <b>8<c>2</c><d>3</d><e>3</e></b>
>
> might mean
>
> element b (total 8) consists of sub elements of d , e and f that contribute 2, 3 and 3 respectively to whoever designed it.
> ====================================================
> Its not far fetched that it also means
>    8 *c(2) + d(3) + e(4)
>
> Its not far fetched  but its not what it *actually* means in XML languages (particularly this comes from the rule of how atomization of XML works).
>
>
> There is defined default behaviour then then is 'whaterver you want behaviour'.  You actually have it both ... you are free
> to parse the XML and assign whatever meaning you want.
>
> In general, I submit, one should be careful about presuming what things *might mean* in languages (computer, human, and biological).
> It is fun to speculate but one is usually totally wrong.
>
> Now your use case could be *coerced* to mean what you say but it's not the default defined behavior.
>
> It's not farfetched that in C
>
> "a" + "b" + "c"  == "abc"
>
> but its not actually true.
>

Personally I avoid mixed content models wherever possible. So it is
more of an issue for those that don't.

I was just messing about with these functions to see whether they were
robust with respect to stability (that is stability as in a stable
sort).


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