'/..' is an idiomatic way to express an empty node set in XPath 1.0. In XPath 2.0, one can use the empty sequence '()'.
... until the collector arrives ...
This "blog" is really just a scratchpad of mine. There is not much of general interest here. Most of the content is scribbled down "live" as I discover things I want to remember. I rarely go back to correct mistakes in older entries. You have been warned :)