> <Purchase>
> <Item>10.00</Item>
> <Item>20.00</Item>
> <Total>
> <SumPrecedingItems>
> <Value>30.00</Value>
> </SumPrecedingItems>
> </Total>
> </Purchase>
The element probably should have been named "SumSiblingItems" to create
a better analogy.
OK, so what - but the point is that re-inventing XPath as a series of
named elements will lead you to an exceedingly painful syntax. If you
don't need the power of XPath, OK you don't need it. But sometimes you
do, and in such cases it doesn't make sense to try replacing it with
something less elegant just to make the job of a syntax parser
("assessor"?) easier.
What does your "assessment" step really do anyway? You didn't say.
-Mike
