> Here, we have a real implementor group, a real problem cited, 
> and the person
> proposing the feature (Rob), I'm confident will implement it. 
>  So I don't
> think the Z39.50 "hypothetical problem" argument applies.

Ray,

I had no doubt that Rob would implement it - however, some of the
orphaned stuff in Z39.50 have been because only one person needed and/or
implemented the feature and they subsequently moved on. So part of the
reason I questioned xPath was to bring people out of the woodwork to
ensure that we would have more that one person implementing it.

The other question I wanted to raise was whether we really needed to fix
SRW or whether there was a perfectly good way to do what Rob wanted in
another way with SRW as is.

I think these are two criteria we should judge new stuff in SRW by to
avoid orphaned technologies.

[And as said, I happy to accept from the discussion that Rob's Xpath
does pass both of these]

Matthew