Richard,
At 12:32 PM 5/20/2005, you wrote:
Yes, thats right. I think I did say I was doing it like that; but not
because I thought that was a good way of doing it - just an easy way.
Yet again, my ignorance of XPath comes through: I never knew there were
intersect and except operators! (I wonder if XPath ignorance is
widespread or whether its just me? Is XPath difficult? I get on with C
all right and regular expressions are easy, but I often seem to get
stuck with XPath. Does anyone else feel like this?.....)
Yes, for sure. While XPath is powerful and, considering what it does, quite
elegant, it is also not obvious. (Deceptively so: the short syntax *looks*
obvious, until it isn't.) This is why, if you read this list over time,
you'll find that XPath lessons are ongoing at all levels. (Despite our
ejecting people who say it's no fun.)
On the other hand, at least XPath 1.0 is simple enough that you can learn
the entire thing in three hours, if you have the benefit of a course or
instructor to lead you through it. (XPath 2.0 is going to take somewhat
longer.) When my company teaches XSLT to anyone who has tried first to use
it on their own, we inevitably get cries of appreciation -- "oh, *that's*
what it does! now it all makes sense!" as we cover XPath. So it's not that
the language is so difficult: it's just somewhat obscure and hard to make
correct guesses about, and hence difficult and recalcitrant for users who
insist on learning the hard way, by trial and error. By the same token,
users who take the trouble to do a little homework first before diving into
it generally find that the effort pays for itself quite quickly.
The world will be very different when XPath is part of the middle school
curriculum.
Cheers,
Wendell
======================================================================
Wendell Piez
mailto:wapiez(_at_)mulberrytech(_dot_)com
Mulberry Technologies, Inc. http://www.mulberrytech.com
17 West Jefferson Street Direct Phone: 301/315-9635
Suite 207 Phone: 301/315-9631
Rockville, MD 20850 Fax: 301/315-8285
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Mulberry Technologies: A Consultancy Specializing in SGML and XML
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