RE: Return system's date and time

>   Speaking of format-date(), I've always wondered why this 
> was an XSLT function rather than an XPath function (and even 
> longer about format-number()).  Do you know why it was 
> decided that formating dates was XSLT-specific?

Partly perhaps some kind of theory that XPath (and in some people's view,
XQuery) shouldn't be concerned with presentation.

Partly the fact that format-number has a dependency on xsl:decimal-format,
which is XSLT-only (and early designs of format-date were similar)

Mainly practical politics. The XQuery WG were preoccupied with deeper
issues, the kind of thing you have to get right in version 1, and wanted to
keep the language small. The XSL WG, whose users are very much concerned
with presentation, needed the functionality, and had the time to develop it
while waiting for XQuery to be finished.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/