[OASIS Issue Tracker] (ODATA-1479) Current instance/collection is only defined adhoc

[OASIS Issues Tracker <workgroup_mailer@lists.oasis-open.org>]

Heiko Theissen created ODATA-1479:
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             Summary: Current instance/collection is only defined adhoc
                 Key: ODATA-1479
                 URL: https://issues.oasis-open.org/browse/ODATA-1479
             Project: OASIS Open Data Protocol (OData) TC
          Issue Type: Improvement
          Components: CSDL JSON , CSDL XML, Data Aggregation, URL Conventions
            Reporter: Heiko Theissen


[OData-CSDL, section "Path evaluation"|https://docs.oasis-open.org/odata/odata-csdl-xml/v4.01/cos01/odata-csdl-xml-v4.01-cos01.html#sec_PathEvaluation]Âsays that certain paths "resolve to a type" and leaves unclear what this means for instance paths, especially since the annotation target may be
 * a single instance (like for `Measures.ISOCurrency`)
 * or a collection (like for `Capabilities.UpdateRestrictions`).

The current wording hides the fact that the specification does not have an overarching notion of "current instance" or "current collection". These have rather been introduced in an adhoc manner and were therefore not available in the section on path evaluation or in the definition of the aggregate function (see ODATA-1451). Compare this to the [XPath specification]([https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-10/]) which begins by saying
{quote}Expression evaluation occurs with respect to a context. ... The context consists of:
 * a node (the context node)
 * a pair of non-zero positive integers (the context position and the context size)
 * a set of variable bindings
 * a function library
 * the set of namespace declarations in scope for the expression{quote}
and then makes use of these terms throughout the text.

Suggestion to try something similar in the OData spec.



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