>>>>> "David" == M David Peterson <m.david@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

    David> Colin defined it perfectly...  use his definition to base
    David> your understanding on.

Actually, I think my definition was far from perfect.

Origin rather than context item, is a better definition.

The difference:

in fred//jim

means, starting from the context item, select child nodes named fred,
and then select all descendants named jim.

whereas //jim means all nodes named jim that are descendants of the
document root.

and .//jim means all nodes named jim that are descendants of the
context node.

rather incosistent syntax, I think, but you quickly get used to it.
-- 
Colin Paul Adams
Preston Lancashire