if i want to select all elements that have at least one, say,
"book" child element, it seems i can do it this way:
//*[name(child::*) = "book"] long way
//*[name(*) = "book"] shorter way
These are both wrong -- they match all elements whose *first* child's name
is "book".
Elements, which have a child named "book", but it doesn't happen to be the
first child -- are not matched by these two expressions.
An expression satisfying your requirements is:
//*[book]
1) is this the easiest way to do it?
No, because it is not at all a way to do it -- see above.
2) why doesn't the following work as well?
//*[name(node()) = "book"]
See above -- in addition this might not return any node, if the first child
of any element happens to be one for which
name() is the empty string -- e.g. a text node.
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