RE: AW: why is "(chapter//footnote)[1]" illegal?

>   (chapter/para)[1]           yes (kay, 408)
>   (chapter//footnote)[1]      no (kay, 443)
>   ($chapters//diagram)[1]     yes (kay, 355)
>
> it's not at all clear *intuitively* why the first and third 
> expressions are acceptable patterns, while the second isn't.  

None of these are acceptable as XSLT patterns. 

Pages 355 and 408 are in the chapter discussing XPath expressions, not
XSLT patterns.

The syntax rules for patterns do not allow parentheses.

Michael Kay


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