Pardon me but basex 7.6 doc() function is out of control.
$ more ib.xml z.xq|cat :::::::::::::: ib.xml :::::::::::::: <Z> <P>There should be a space: <!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be a space: <!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space: <!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be a space: <!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be a space: <!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be a space: <!-- --> <!-- --> :here!</P> <P>There should be NO SPACE:<!-- --><!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be NO SPACE:<!-- -->:<!-- -->:here!</P> </Z> :::::::::::::: z.xq :::::::::::::: doc("ib.xml") $ basex z.xq <Z> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be a space:<!-- --> <!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be NO SPACE:<!-- --> <!-- -->:here!</P> <P>There should be NO SPACE:<!-- -->:<!-- -->:here!</P> </Z>$ basex z.xq|w3m -dump -T text/html There should be a space::here!
There should be a space::here!
There should be a space::here!
There should be a space::here!
There should be a space::here!
There should be a space::here!
There should be a space: :here!
There should be NO SPACE: :here!
There should be NO SPACE:::here!
So it failed all but two. The problem seems to lie in the doc() function.
In fact if you just left what you found intact, you wouldn't wreck people's formatting too. You don't wreck things when processing let $k := <coordinates> 120.867029,24.167269,10 <!--1 G8247 AC66--> 120.866931,24.167630,10 <!--2 G8247 AD50--> 120.866832,24.167901,10 <!--3 G8247 AD43--> </coordinates>
then why not do the same with doc()?