Re: [xsl] Re: A proposal:xsl:result-document asynchronous attribute

[Mulberry Technologies List Owner <xsl-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2003 18:33:50 +0000
>From: Francis Norton <francis@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [xsl] Re: A proposal:xsl:result-document asynchronous attribute
>
>Hi Jeni,
>
>Jeni Tennison wrote:
>
>>Note that a side-effect-free version of timestamp is available in
>>XPath 2.0: current-dateTime(). During the course of a single
>>transformation, current-dateTime() will always return the same
>>dateTime.
>> 
>>
>Useful and elegant. But useful enough?
>
>>I wonder what we can do about random number generation. I think that
>>having a function like random(seed?) would be possible, with it
>>returning the same random number for a given seed. That would allow
>>you to do:
>>
>>  <xsl:for-each select="foo">
>>    <xsl:sort select="random(position())" data-type="number" />
>>    ...
>>  </xsl:for-each>
>>
>>to get the <foo> elements in a random order, which would seem to be
>>the most frequent requirement for a random() function.
>>
>Equally elegant.
>
>I don't know. I want an XML solution for dealing with a world which is
>full of XML resources all buzzing with state. Maybe the XSLT model
>really isn't up to it and we shouldn't risk breaking it in the process.
>
>I'm off on holiday tomorrow or a week, maybe I'll think about it when
>not incapacitated by excessive consumption of Mojitos.
>
>Thanks for all the comments - I do appreciate the constructive and
>intelligent discussion you get here!
>
>Francis.
>
>--
>"Never mind manoeuvre, go straight at 'em." - Admiral Horatio Nelson


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