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> It would certainly be annoying if, for example, (//foo)[4]
> didn't return the 4th foo element in the document, because it
> wouldn't be compliant.
>
On the other hand, an XPath processor given the expression //foo is free
to return the results in any order. XSLT defines that the results will
be processed in document order (e.g. by apply-templates, or for-each, or
copy-of), but that's an XSLT rule, not an XPath rule: a different
environment that uses XPath isn't obliged to have the same rule.
If the DOM interface for XPath specified that nodes could be returned in
any order, this would be a conformant use of XPath, though many users
would find it irritating.
Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@ntlworld.com
work: Michael.Kay@softwareag.com
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