>
> > A Schematron assertion (that the node list is non-null) would then always
> > fail, even at "compile" time.
> >
> > I think this behavior would be _better_ for Schematron.
>
> How can that be better for schematron? It completely breaks the whole
> purpose of the schematron schema, which is to find the "bad" markup and
> to report the occurrences to the user. Having your schematron schema
> fail to compile because it is looking for illegal cases means that
> almost all schematron schema would not compile.
A followup, and to be crystal clear, I did not mean to imply
that the Schematron schema would fail to "compile" whatever
that means (I suppose it would be some sort of static type
analysis?)
What I said is that the "assertion would fail" that is it
would be known that an assertion, which depends on a
particular node set being not null, i.e. not empty, would
_never be true_ as long as the XML document was e.g. XSD valid.
The Schematron schema would be entirely "correct" -- assertions
are intended to "fail" i.e. trigger some event when that
which is asserted is "not true" i.e. "null"
Jonathan
