Repeated question on selection order

[MARK.WROTH@xxxxxxxxxxx (Wroth, Mark)]

A couple of days ago, I asked several questions related to an ongoing
attempt to create an SGML based literate programming system.  Various people
on this list (notably Brandon Ibach and David Carlisle) have been very
helpful in resolving specific programming issues I've run into in that
context.

But I still have a theoretical question.  When I use the code

	(with-mode continuation 
	  (make sequence 
	    (process-node-list 
	      (select-elements (descendants (document-element
(current-node))) 
	        `(scrap (continues ,(attribute-string "id"))))))) 

I am guaranteed by the DSSSL specification (paragraph 12.4.3) that the
process-node-list function will process the node list *in order*.  However,
I can't tell from the text of 10.2.5 whether I can guarantee that
select-elements will produce a node list in the order I desire (which is the
order the matching elements appear in the document instance).  The practical
examples I've run seem to indicate that Jade, at least, does so.  But since
a variation in the selection order would have ... interesting ...
possibilities for introducing bugs into the output program source code, I'd
like to be sure that this is not mere coincidence.


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