Feedback on XPath file structures for general purpose use

["G. Ken Holman" <gkholman@CraneSoftwrights.com>]

Fellow HISC members,

I've received some valuable feedback on XPath files from George 
Cristian Bina <george@oxygenxml.com> of the group who has created the 
oXygenXML http://www.oxygenxml.com development environment:

(1) - there is no facility for mapping the prefixes of types to URI strings

(2) - there is no documentation supporting the documentary 
conventions of prefixes, giving the improper impression the prefixes 
are somehow normative

(3) - has enough thought been put into the cardinality information 
when considering models such as the following?

     test -> (a, x*) | (b, x+) | (c, x)

This leads me to conclude we have not put enough thought into the 
XPath files to make them truly general purpose.  They are at this 
time solving our UBL problems and I'm even using them (unexpectedly) 
in addressing the code list issues.

I've made it a personal action item to consider after the code list 
and formatting specification stuff is completed what it would take to 
enrich XPath files that they might, indeed, become general purpose 
tools.  Especially in light of how they are showing themselves to be 
useful in contexts other than that for which they were originally 
developed in their simplified form.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

. . . . . . . . . Ken

--
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