> I would like to, but, I didn't invent the algorithm. The idea was this: 
> make a UUID from within XLST 

For Dave P? (Who asked me the same qn off list a while ago:-)

The functional way of doing it of course is to maintain a list of all
the ones you've generated this session (or at least a count of the same)
If the function took a sequence of strings (of uuids) and returned a
sequence extended by one new one, then to generate three of the beasts
you wouldn't do
f(),f(),f()
with side effects, you'd do
f(f(f(())))
which is so much more wholesome...

David