RE: XQuery -- Reinventing the Wheel?

[Evan Lenz <elenz@xyzfind.com>]

Jonathan Robie wrote:
>I think I should start by responding to the title
>of this message. The phrase "reinventing the wheel"
>usually refers to reinventing something that already
>exists because you don't know about it.

This connotation was intentional, due to the fact that the XQuery spec does
absolutely nothing to address the obvious and substantial overlap it has
with the semantics of XSLT. It was also intentional due to the fact that the
semantics of XPath are largely disregarded in the XQuery specification. It
was also intentional due to XQuery's superfluous "extensions" to XPath (->,
empty(), RANGE, UNION), none of which add functionality that isn't already
there and that can't be specified quite simply in XPath.

XQuery              XPath

UNION           =   |
->              =   id()
empty()         =   not()
RANGE 2 TO 5    =   position() >= 2 and position() <= 5

The XPath syntax should win on all these fronts, not because it is
intrinsically the best syntax, but because it's a W3C Recommendation that
XQuery claims to use. This is just a microcosm of the general disregard for
the reuse of W3C technology found in the XQuery spec.

Evan Lenz
XYZFind Corp.