Re: Processing based on number - alternatives to recu

In order to use xsl:for-each, I'd have to dispose of something
generating a node-set based on my number, wouldn't I?

yes if you know that your input document (or stylesheet is big enough)
a common trick was to use
<xsl:for-each select="(//*)[position() &lt;= Urmel]"....
which may not be any more efficient, but is a lot shorter.

Thanks, David, Vyacheslav, Martin. This looks like an interesting hack.
How can I get hold of my stylesheet? Supplying the stylesheet file name
as a parameter to the stylesheet and calling document() on it?

in xslt2 you can go

<xsl:for-each select="1 to xs:integer(Urmel)"> ...

Or is this misguided optimization thinking in thinking that lots of
template invocations are bad?

If you write the recursive call as a tail recursive call as you have
done, then in most (I hope) XSLT systems this will be essentially
compiled to a loop an not take up the stack space that would naturally
implied by a deeply nested set of function calls.

Lots of stack space is what I thought. Does tail recursion mean there
is nothing left to process in the current round when the template
recursively invokes itself?

Does the call have to be placed at the end of the recursive template
in order for this to happen?