Xpath Rule and Default namespace

[lee . p . dittrich]

I am using xalan 1.9 with xerces 2.6.0. Using the sample code provided
(SimpleXPathAPI) I get unexpected results when I use an XML document
that contains a default namespace.

I expected this xpath rule to return true but it returns false as I
believe
that the default name space is ignored.

./SimpleXPathAPI ./example.xml /FpML:FpML /FpML:FpML/IrML/irTrade/party/
FpML:partyTradeIdentifier/FpML:tradeId=55007835
The string value of the result is:
false

If I remove the default namespace in example.xml or add a prefix to the
namespace. Then the xpath will rule will return _true_ 

./SimpleXPathAPI ./example.xml /FpML:FpML /FpML:FpML/IrML/irTrade/party/
FpML:partyTradeIdentifier/FpML:tradeId=55007835
The string value of the result is:
true

The above xpath evaluates to TRUE with and without the default namespace
using another processor. Is this a xalan bug or my misunderstanding of
XML namespaces?

Thanks in advance
Lee Dittrich


Example XML used in above test

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<FpML:FpML xmlns:FpML="http://www.fpml.org/2003/FpML-4-0";
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";
xmlns:IrML="http://irml.com/2003/trade";
xmlns="http://irml.com/2003/trade"; version="4-0">
        <FpML:header>
                <FpML:messageId
messageIdScheme="TEST">5554667</FpML:messageId>
                <FpML:sentBy>MySystem</FpML:sentBy>
                <FpML:sendTo>TradeCaptureSystem</FpML:sendTo>
                <FpML:copyTo>IntradaySystem</FpML:copyTo>
        
<FpML:creationTimestamp>2004-07-13T15:38:00</FpML:creationTimestamp>
        </FpML:header>
        <IrML version="4-0">
                <irTrade>
                        <FpML:tradeHeader>
                                <FpML:partyTradeIdentifier>
                                        <FpML:partyReference
href="PARTY"/>
        
<FpML:tradeId>55007835</FpML:tradeId>
                                </FpML:partyTradeIdentifier>
                </irTrade>
        </IrML>
</FpML:FpML>