Re: Trying to understand root-less or document-node-le

On 9/17/07, Abel Braaksma <abel.online@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi list people!
>
> I stumbled across this ('this' is explained later) when I realized that
>
>    <xsl:variable name="root">
>         <test1 />
>         <test2 />
>     </xsl:variable>
>
> can be queried by an xpath using the simple $root/* axis. In other
> words: children of $root. And that this felt non-analogous to the following:
>
>     <xsl:function name="my:rootless">
>         <test1 />
>         <test2 />
>     </xsl:function>

What you're describing is the same as typing the variable as="element()" eg:

<xsl:variable name="root" as="element()+">
  <test1 />
  <test2 />
</xsl:variable>

By adding as="element()+" the variable goes from a root with two child
elements that are siblings (eg to access <test1/> use $root/test1) to
a sequence of elements with no root and that aren't siblings (to
access <test1/> use $root[1])

> Thanks for any insightful insights ;)

I don't know why it's like that - I'm guessing it's because they don't
share a common parent that they aren't siblings, but I can't find
anything to back that up.

-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com
Kernow: http://kernowforsaxon.sf.net/