On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 1:24 PM, Wolfgang Laun
<wolfgang(_dot_)laun(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com> wrote:
On 20/09/2012, Ihe Onwuka <ihe(_dot_)onwuka(_at_)googlemail(_dot_)com> wrote:
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 12:30 PM, Andrew Welch
<andrew(_dot_)j(_dot_)welch(_at_)gmail(_dot_)com>
wrote:
<A 1st="1" second="2" third="3" fourth="4" fifth="5"/>
now tell me what are the first and last attributes of A.
Ok, but first (as hopefully this will explain it):
1. What is the position() of @third ?
2. Why do:
@second/position()
@third/position()
both return 1?
No. I'm moving on from the orthogonal conversation to one that is
conducted on my terms since you are the one trying to understand me.
<A 1st="1" second="2" third="3" fourth="4" fifth="5"/>
1. what are the first and last attributes of A.
2. what are A/@*[1] and A/@*[last()]
Is there a definitive answer to 1 (I say no).
Correct, because the question does not make sense: you are asking
about non-existing properties of a *set*.
So if we ask the same question of it's representation and get an
answer what do we make of that answer (rhetorical).
Are there definitive answers to 2 (Well a processor will always give
you one if the set is not empty).
No - we know that this is implementation dependent.
Is A/@* a representation of the attributes of A. (I say yes).
It has the same cardinality. All values of this representation are
contained in the other representation. There is a bijection between these two.
Is A/@* a faithful representation of the attributes of A?
No: it has lost the set-ness.
If A/@* is a faithful representation of the attributes of A why does
it yields answers to questions that the original representation can't
answer.
Because the transformation has added new properties.
So it's not a faithful representation.
So what if A/@* is not a faithful representation. Should I present the
answers it gives me as a universal truth.
No, it's the truth about the transformation process from one to the other.
so you may get paradoxical answers from such a process, which was the
point of the post that started this thread. Is such an observation
useful. I think so.
PS people that care about ordering still use relational databases.
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