RE: Using absolute path when context item is an atomic

> Ok.... but when you do:
> 
> <xsl:for-each select="1 to 10">
> 
> The "context node" is an atomic value - how do you anything useful
> here?  Do you need to do:
> 
> <xsl:variable name="currentElem" select="."/>
> <xsl:for-each select="1 to 10">
>    <xsl:value-of select="$currentElem/whatever"/>
> 

Yes, I'm afraid so.

> 
> Actually, I can't see why '/' would ever select anything when the
> context item is an atomic value, so why doesn't it keep it's pointer
> to the original root... 

We looked very early on at a design where there was a "context document" as
well as a "context node", and the context document changed when the context
item was set to a node but not when it was changed to an atomic value; we
decided it was so complicated to explain that it was better to take the
simple approach, at the cost of making users do what you illustrate above.

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