I tried 
> '/para/node()[preceding-sibling::blink[1]]' but it gives 
> exactly the same set of nodes. 
> 
> What did I miss in the Xpath specification?
> 

If a node has a preceding sibling called "blink", then one of these will
be the first, so the two conditions are equivalent.

You want to test whether the first preceding sibling is called "blink":

[preceding-sibling::*[1][self::blink]]

Michael Kay
Software AG
home: Michael.H.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxx
work: Michael.Kay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 


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