Compiling XPath for streaming access policy

We show how the full XPath language can be compiled into a minimal subset suited for stream-based evaluation. Specifically, we show how XPath normalization into a core language as proposed in the current W3C "Last Call" draft of the XPath/XQuery Formal Semantics can be extended such that both the context state and reverse axes can be eliminated from the core XPath (and potentially XQuery) language. This allows execution of (almost) full XPath on any of the emerging streaming subsets. Copyright 2005 ACM.