RE: Clark notation in XPath

> I actually prefer the notation that the WG recently introduced for
> error messages - the namespace-uri followed by # followed by the local
> name - one less character to type.

I think the reason James used {uri}local in preference was that it was
quicker to detect (just look at the first character). The uri#local form is
more complex to process, especially in the case where the namespace URI
itself contains a "#". But the choice of syntax is secondary: the main point
is that it would be useful to have a syntax for expanded names that doesn't
require prefixes to be declared.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/