> Given a file on a server, thus:
> 
> //someServer/someDirectory/someFile.xml
> 
> The following function call opens it:
> 
> document('file:////someServer/someDirectory/someFile.xml')
> 

Thanks. I thought that was supposed to work, but last time I tried, I
failed.

The format //someServer/someDirectory/someFile.xml is a Windows UNC
filename: a remote file in the sense that it belongs to the filestore of a
machine other than the client. The RFCs are pretty unhelpful about how this
case should be represented using a URI in the "file" scheme, but the
"file:////" prefix seems to be emerging as the accepted answer. It's
probably best treated as implementation-dependent, though.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/