>  what is the "defacto" way to test for an empty
> element?

if by empty you mean no children then the most obvious way (if the
element is the current node)

is <xsl:if test="not(node())">


you can also test <xsl:if test=".=''"> but that would say that
<a><b/></a> was empty.

If by empty you mean no element children

then 
<xsl:if test="not(*)">

David

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