your
\xmlsetsetup{#1}{*}{-}
makex takenotes into a nothing ... (comment that line if needed to see effects in your code)
I got that line from your first demo program in "Dealing with XML in ConTeXt Mkiv":
\startxmlsetups xml:demo:base
(1) \xmlsetsetup{#1}{*}{-}
(2) \xmlsetsetup{#1}{document|section|p}{xml:demo:*}
\stopxmlsetups
The comment on page 7 with that demo:
(1) \xmlsetup{demo}{*}{-} sets the default for each element (the *) to 'just ignore it' (the -). A + would...
(2) followed by "this means that at this point we only handle" and I understood from this that because of the 'section' in statement (2) the <section> node will get processed. Congruent with this example I wrote in my example:
\startxmlsetups notes:setups
\xmlinclude{#1}{include}{file}
\xmlsetsetup{#1}{*}{-}
\xmlsetsetup{#1}{takenotes}{notes:*}
\stopxmlsetups
expecting this to mean that <takenotes> will be activated by it. Is that a misunderstanding?
Hans van der Meer