DMN12 — Impossible to invoke functions and() and or()

Page 109 of the specification, 3rd bullet, states:

“A name start (grammar rule 28) SHALL NOT be a language keyword. (Language keywords are enclosed in double quotes in the grammar rules, for example, "and", "or", "true", "false".)"

The specification defines a function invocation on page 108, rule 40, as:

function invocation = expression , parameters ;

The list of built-in functions on page 134 lists both functions “and(…)” and “or(...)” as built in functions, but from the grammar rules mentioned above, it is clear that “and”, is not a valid "expression", and so “and(…)” is also not a valid function invocation.

The same is true for “or(...)”.

Either the functions need to be renamed to use valid identifiers (i.e., identifiers that do not start with a keyword) or the grammar has to be changed to allow for this special case. My personal preference is to rename the built in functions to something like “list and(...)” and “list or(...)”.

rename 'and' to 'all' and 'or' to 'any'

see revised text

Argument for Backward Compatibility
Normally, a change of name of built-in function would be an incompatible change. However, this part of the 1.1 spec proved impossible to implement, because the name of a built-in cannot be a language keyword. I.e., nothing to be compatible with here.