IMHO the current distinction between sequences and arrays could eventually be 
abolished.
> 

Not without dramatic incompatibilities.

The core problem is the equivalence of a singleton sequence and an item. Which 
is a great benefit in the XML arena, because you don’t have to worry about 
whether /book/author is returning a sequence or an item. But you can’t do 
nested sequences/arrays under this model, because if you allow nesting then you 
need to distinguish [[a]] from [a]. So we have arrays that allow nesting, and 
sequences where singletons are the same as items, and the two models are 
irreconcilable.

Michael Kay
Saxonica


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