Richard Tobin wrote:
> I'm not sure I understand your description, but if you mean "why is it
> defined as descendant-or-self::node()/ rather than descendant::", it's
> so that expressions like //p[1] mean "all paragraphs that are first
> children" rather than "the first paragraph".

I presume you mean "all paragraphs that are the first paragraph".

I can see where that argument might have been advanced. But all our 
experience with the rest of the XPath expression language leads us to 
expect it to mean the latter. Convenience needs to be balanced against 
principle of least surprise, and I believe the d-or-s::node() expansion 
of // violates that principle.

If they wanted to provide a shorthand for this purpose, fine, but they 
should also have provided a shorthand for descendant, to help keep the 
two from getting confused.

Too late to fix now; it is what it is. But I still put it in the 
category of "warts to be fixed someday."

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