Re: passing parameter to template

> <xsl:apply-templates select="exsl:node-set($tools)">

that applies templates to the root node, so you either need to have
a template for / that handles the parameter or you need to do

<xsl:apply-templates select="exsl:node-set($tools)/*">
                                                  ^^

so you pass apply templates to the first element, so if that is 
<tool> the template you showed would have the param.

> <xsl:with-param name="sort">
>  <xsl:value-of select="$sort_dir"/>
> </xsl:with-param>

Unless you particularly want to create a result tree fragment here
(which is unlikely) you would  be much better off doing
 <xsl:with-param name="sort" select="$sort_dir"/>


David

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