xml-dev - Re: Didier's lab report

[Curt Arnold <CurtA@techie.com>]

I frequently use a variable to capture the node set from a document.

Basically, the implementation wouldn't be specific to xsl:variable or
document().
You'd simply have a class of node sets that support asynchronous
evaluation.
If the expression did not require an immediate evaluation (no part to
the right)
and the pattern appeared to be a time consuming one (document() is an
obvious one,
but could be anything with a // for example), then node set evaluation
could be
initiated and control returned to the template engine.  Only when
another expression 
accessed the node set would it block until the node set was complete.

Asynchronous evaluation appeared to be expected in XSLT, however I don't
know if
any of the current engines support the behavior.  Probably time to ask
the Xalan guys
or the XSL list if anybody has implemented something like that or if I'm
all wet.