RE: Re: Keeping a running total?

> Is it usual to talk of O(n) with respect to an 
> implementation, or should the term apply strictly to an algorithm?

A very good question. However, declarative languages don't express an
algorithm, so you can only really discuss the time complexity of the
implementation, or of an assumed implementation. It's a real problem:
without knowledge of the implementation you have no way of knowing, for
example, whether xsl:copy-of takes constant time or time proportional to the
size of the tree being copied.

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