Pipeline state variables to expose

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I think we need to expose all the following to access from XPath
expressions inside pipelines:

 1) An implementation-defined string which is unique per pipeline
    evaluation episode (think $$ in UN*X shells);

 2) A 1-origin index of the position of the current document in a
    document sequence;

 3) A 1-origin indicator of the iteration number.

I tend to prefer doing this via variables, because they feel easier to
me to interface to an XPath implementation from outside, but I don't
feel really strongly.

If variables, then something like:

 p:episode, p:position and p:[stepname]_index.

If functions, then

 p:episode(), p:position() and p:index(stepname).

ht
- -- 
 Henry S. Thompson, HCRC Language Technology Group, University of Edinburgh
                     Half-time member of W3C Team
    2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW, SCOTLAND -- (44) 131 650-4440
            Fax: (44) 131 650-4587, e-mail: ht@inf.ed.ac.uk
                   URL: http://www.ltg.ed.ac.uk/~ht/
[mail really from me _always_ has this .sig -- mail without it is forged spam]
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Received on Thursday, 3 May 2007 16:19:58 UTC