[xslt] string(node-set)

[Phil Shafer <phil juniper net>]

I was a bit surprised to see the xpath spec says string() of
a node-set should be the string of the first (in document order)
node, not the complete node set.

Does anyone know the history or rationale for this behavior?

Short of a loop, what's the easiest way to turn a node set into a
string of all the members of that node set?

Thanks,
 Phil