Re: Whitespace between nodes

I suspect that your input document has the carriage returns

I think one of your processors is "helpfully" removing the carriage returns improperly. If you show us the input and name the processors it will be easy to help.

<xsl:choose>
  <xsl:when test="@href != ''">
    <q><a href="{@href}"><xsl:value-of select="@title" /></a></q>
  </xsl:when>
  <xsl:otherwise>
    <q><xsl:value-of select="@title" /></q>
  </xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>

Sablotron:
<q>
  <a href="...">Text</a>
</q>
-or-  (if !href)
<q>Text</q>

Libxslt:
<q><a href="...">Text</a></q>
-or-  (if !href)
<q>Text</q>

Saxon: (as Sablotron)
Xalan-J: (as Sablotron but without indentations)