Re: [xml-dev] The limitations of XPath and navigation for XML database processing

Jonathan Robie wrote:
>>  If you choose the procedural interpretation, it will
>> seem procedural to you. If you choose the declarative interpretation, it
>> will seem declarative. I think it is generally better to teach users to
>> think of it declaratively.

Taken out of context, syntax may be declarative. But if the wrapper is 
procedural code, you've lost an advantage. The person who sees problems through 
a procedural, navigational lens might feel the need for <xsl:for-each> (or SQL 
cursors and row-by-row operations) every time there's code to be written.

Users need to be taught the benefits of optimization and that the question of 
declarative or procedural coding affects performance.

Or we need to give them tools that are declarative and non-procedural by 
default, which seems to be the point of Mike's article.