Comment by css_apologist

I think xpath is cool too!

If wxpath can help revive some of that excitement, then I consider my project a success.

As for your question, while wxpath does extend the xpath syntax, `/map` is not one of its additions, nor is it a html map element.

XPath 3.1 introduced first-class maps (and arrays) (https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-31/#id-maps), and `/map` is the syntax to create said structure. It's an awesome feature that's especially useful for quickly delivering JSON-like objects.

XPath may have "failed" for general use but it's generally well-enough supported that I can find a library in the common languages I've used when I went looking for it. In some ways the hard part is just knowing it exists so you can use it if you need it.

Maps were added in XPath 3.1 -- https://www.w3.org/TR/xpath-31/#id-maps.

There's currently work on XPath 4.0 -- https://qt4cg.org/specifications/xquery-40/xpath-40.html.