At 04:07 AM 4/1/2005, David wrote:
> Yes, such "equality" is not too useful and in fact is misleading.
although people seem to get by in XPath 1, where
'1' = 1 and 1 = 1.0
'1' != 1.0
I think we get away with this because the number of datatypes is small and
thus the casting rules can simply be memorized; "equality" can be learned
in that context. (Hint to XSLT 1.0 aspirants: learn the casting rules.)
Soon enough (if you're paying attention) you learn that XPath 1.0
"equality" isn't quite the operation you might expect. As such, you have to
use it with some care, but once you understand how it works it's quite
useful (and even, to a large extent, before that point).
It's a nice example, in fact, of how "equality" as we encounter it in
practice (that is, as an operation that happens to be called "equality")
may even sometimes fall short of the rigorous sense that Dimitre defined
and that Mukul needs (if only implicitly) in order to specify his
requirements with similar rigor.
Cheers,
Wendell
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Wendell Piez
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Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
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