"Andrew" == Andrew Welch <andrew.j.welch@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

    Andrew> Hopefully one day someone will create an XSLT processor
    Andrew> that operates against a native XML database, to have have
    Andrew> the best of both worlds.

I don't understand why that is necessary.

Why not just specify a URI scheme for accessing your favourite
database, and write a URI resolver for it that returns events that
your XSLT processor can understand (e.g. for JAXP processors such as
Saxon, generate SAX events)?

Then your favourite database will look like a native XML database to
the XSLT processor.