On 19/04/2008, Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > It would be really useful if it returned the actual dateTime
>  > at the time of the call so you could implement a progress
>  > reporting feature in the transform - you could say how many
>  > records were processed in a given time and based on that
>  > suggest when the transform might finish.
>
>
> It wouldn't be as useful as you think. Let's say you use an extension
>  function that does this, as has been suggested:
>
>  <xsl:variable name="startTime" select="xx:current-dateTime()"/>
>  ... do some processing ...
>  <xsl:variable name="endTime" select="xx:current-dateTime()"/>
>  <xsl:message select="$endTime - $startTime"/>
>
>  The final result will be a negative duration, because Saxon will evaluate
>  $endTime before it evaluates $startTime.

ha, good point - that should be the #1 example for describing what
lazy evaluation is...

It is easy enough though to ensure startTime is evaluated at the start
of processing.


-- 
Andrew Welch
http://andrewjwelch.com
Kernow: http://kernowforsaxon.sf.net/