Re: the nearest ancestor with the attribute

> A node set is always unordered until you do anything with it like
> iterate over it, get a value from it or whatever. Of course a node set
> is pretty useless unless you do something with it, so saying a node
> set is unordered doesn't particularly help :)

It mainly helps in defining | as set union, which is a standard
operation on sets. If you wanted to define | on ordered lists you'd have
to describe removing of duplicates and say which duplicate was removed,
etc.

> When you use a predicate on a node set that's already been generated, ...
> When you use a predicate on a node set within a step ...

Note that these are two entirely different bits of the XPath grammar,
that just happen to both use the same [ ... ] syntax.

MK says (page 358 of his book) 
The operation of a Predicate in a FilterExpr is very similar to the
application of a Predicate in a Step in a LocationPath ....
you can often use Predicates without being fully aware that you are
using a FilterExpr or a LocationPath. .... The main differences to watch
out for are ....

David

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