[xquery-talk] :=

Joe Wicentowski joewiz at gmail.com
Mon Nov 21 10:29:35 PST 2016


Hi Mike,

> Actually most of the symbols in the language don't have names. For example "+" doesn't have a name.

Fair point. But it is at least possible to track down or piece
together a plain English description of the "+" operator, e.g., at
https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-functions-31/#func-numeric-add. Similarly,
the dollar sign that prefixes a variable name is explained in plain
English at https://www.w3.org/TR/xquery-31/#id-variables. I'm okay
with calling ":=" "colon-equals" or even not giving it a name. But
unlike the other unnamed symbols, ":=" has no plain English
definition, only an indirect, tertiary definition by way of the EBNF
notation for clauses that use it. I'm not saying that the spec is
obligated to provide a name or plain English description for all
symbols, but it does strike me that an agreed-upon description for
this one - prominent in the L of XQuery's signature expression - would
be useful to provide to people learning the language.

Thanks,
Joe


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