I tried
'/para/node()[preceding-sibling::blink[1]]' but it gives
exactly the same set of nodes.
What did I miss in the Xpath specification?
If a node has a preceding sibling called "blink", then one of these will
be the first, so the two conditions are equivalent.
You want to test whether the first preceding sibling is called "blink":
[preceding-sibling::*[1][self::blink]]
Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael(_dot_)H(_dot_)Kay(_at_)ntlworld(_dot_)com
work: Michael(_dot_)Kay(_at_)softwareag(_dot_)com
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