This solution is in XSLT 1.0
not very elegant to the time complexity -

I used the function :

count(ancestor::NODES)

to determine a value for the depth of a given <NODE> node.


datamodel wrote:
> Hello I have an XML tree of which you can see a mini-version here:
>
> http://paste.uni.cc/11838
>
> (the tree is actually over 30,000 levels deep)
>
> How do I count the depth of a given <NODES><NODE> ?????
>
> The problem is I would like to "color" nodes based on their depth in
> the tree - ie, use alternating colors.
>
> A depth, or actually "level" in the logical tree actually comprises two
> levels in the XML tree - ie
> <NODES><NODE>
>
> There is no depth attribute in the XML tags,
> and the position() function applies only to the currently processed
> node,
>
> Ideally I want to construct a test like
>
> <xsl:if test="[parent::position() &lt; 3]">
>
> of course this is wrong syntax.
>
> and position() doesn't help , since it really computes the position in
> the siblings at a given level, 
> not the level of depth in the tree.