The XPath/XQuery juggernaut (Was: limits of the generic)

> So far, I've just resigned myself to ignoring XPath 2.0, XSLT 2.0
> and XQuery.

Back with the first release I thought "this design is just dreadful,
but they're just the first WDs, and James Clark is in the WG; he'll
make sure it isn't totally screwed up". Then he left. Then on the next
release I thought "this design is just dreadful, but they're just the
second WDs, and Mike Kay is in the WG; he'll make sure it isn't
totally screwed up".

Now we're on the third or fourth WD (depending on the spec), heading
rapidly for Last Call, and I wish I'd raised more of my concerns, more
loudly, earlier in the process. I don't want to see a pair of
languages that I loved for their elegance and simplicity turned into
the monsters that they're becoming. But I'm just one, easily ignored
voice, without a big corporation behind me and without either James
Clark's or Mike Kay's authority. Now I'm an invited expert on the WG I
can argue, I can vote, I can register dissent, but I doubt that any of
that will turn this juggernaut around.

XSLT and XPath users of the world, unite! The WGs will take your
silence as approval, not disgust. Send your comments to
public-qt-comments@w.... It doesn't matter if you don't have a
solution to all of XPath's woes -- the WGs are there to create the
solutions -- but it does matter if you think the languages are off
track, especially if that means you're not going to use them. None of
us want XPath/XSLT 2.0 to turn into another W3C XML Schema or XLink.