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Subject: Inconsistent definition for the any-of-all function
In appendix A.3.12 of the XACML 3 core specification (Higher-order bag functions), the English description of the any-of-all function is not consistent with the Haskell formal definition. The English description is (including the typo at the beginning of the first URN): The expression SHALL be evaluated as if the "rn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:function:any-of" function had been applied to each value of the second bag and the whole of the first bag using the supplied xacml:Function, and the results were then combined using "urn:oasis:names:tc:xacml:1.0:function:and". This suggests a corresponding Haskell definition such as: any_of_all f xs [] = True any_of_all f xs (y:ys) = (any_of f xs y) && (any_of_all f xs ys) The formal Haskell definition for the any-of-all function is actually: any_of_all f [] ys = False any_of_all f (x:xs) ys = (all_of f x ys) || (any_of_all f xs ys) These two Haskell definitions are not equivalent! Note that if the second definition evaluates to true, then the first definition must also evaluate to true, but the reverse case does not hold. Either the English description or the Haskell definition must be changed for the sake of consistency (the example happens to work either way though it is described in terms of the English description), but there is a deeper issue here. Both interpretations are perfectly reasonable to have as higher-order bag functions. In fact, there are four reasonable combinations of any-of and all-of for a higher-order bag function of two bag arguments: (1) x_of_x f [] ys = True x_of_x f (x:xs) ys = (any_of f x ys) && (x_of_x f xs ys) (2) x_of_x f xs [] = False x_of_x f xs (y:ys) = (all_of f xs y) || (x_of_x f xs ys) (3) x_of_x f xs [] = True x_of_x f xs (y:ys) = (any_of f xs y) && (x_of_x f xs ys) (4) x_of_x f [] ys = False x_of_x f (x:xs) ys = (all_of f x ys) || (x_of_x f xs ys) Definition (1) corresponds to the current all-of-any function, the any-of-all function is confused between (3) and (4), and definition (2) is not supported at all. It seems to me that there are only two functions where there ought to be four. I don't have any great ideas on what they should be called - perhaps: (1) all-of-any (2) reverse-any-of-all (3) reverse-all-of-any (4) any-of-all I will detail an alternative to defining the missing functions in a separate email. Separately, the Haskell definitions for the all-of-any and any-of-all functions refer to the Haskell definitions of any_of and all_of, but these haven't been defined. Regards, Steven
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