If you despise it, why are you using it? In the code you showed, there
is no reason to use XSLT as all you are doing is using it as a
procedural language and you can better do that with ASP (which already
is procedural, whereas xslt is declarative).

I like XSL because it provides a natural division between presentation
and processing logic. I also like it because I find the practice of
outputting HTML with ASP gross. =)

Good time to upgrade, though: ASP (before .net) is age-old and not
particularly suited for building web pages anymore, and definitely not
RIAs (which you seem to build) and MS is planning (or already did?) to
stop support for it. (but this matter may bring us far off-topic, for
many it is all a matter of taste anyway).

I've never needed MS support to use ASP. Also, I agree ASP is age-old
but so much of my application is in SQL and XSL, so ASP is really just
a light-weight middle man.

> Yeah, my template works perfectly fine but I was just hoping for
> something more akin a 1.0 version of Angela's 2.0 solution, for pure
> style and type-ability reasons. If I could just magically go:
>
> <xsl:ajaxLink link='Click Me' href='process.asp' />
>
> I'd be thrilled!

That's good. Lookup a couple of templates from FXSL, it demonstrates
many techniques, among one the sell-referencing method, where you use
your own namespace for your own extensions, something along the lines of:

<xsl:stylesheet
     xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
     xmlns:ajax="http://ajax"
     extension-element-prefixes="ajax"
     >

<ajax:link link='Click Me' href='process.asp' />

    <xsl:template match="/">
       <xsl:copy-of select="document("")/*/ajax:link" />
    </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

will output your ajax link.

But if all you care about is having an LRE, you don't need this
complexity, nor a call-template, nor apply-templates. Just write it as
an LRE, period (but here we are, back to the original question I asked
you: we need to understand your situation better to really help you).

> I can't really use apply-templates (a la Grand Mr. Welch) because I'm
> not transforming links with XSL, I'm generating them.
Still hoping for a context explanation from you, I haven't seen any
reason in your code why you need xsl:call-templates. "Generating them"
says as much to me as it would when you explain what exactly you are
doing with ASP and you tell me "generating web pages". I am under the
impression that you are taking the wrong approach and I would like to
help you with it, but you're not making it easy. Whether you use
apply-templates or call-template, has nothing to do with 'transforming
links' either, I wouldn't have a clue of what that could mean (xslt for
one cannot transform links, it can only transform an input tree of nodes).

I need xsl:call-template because as it stands I have to type out the
anchor tags manually across my site in XSL and I'd rather have a quick
short-hand for outputting them according to a standard format
(template, function, etc).

<xsl:template name="nav">
	<xsl:variable name="id" select="//id" />
	<fieldset id="navigation" class="oneCol">
		<div>
			<span id="consumerInfo">
				<xsl:value-of select="//firstName" />&#32;
				<xsl:value-of select="//MI" />&#32;
				<xsl:value-of select="//lastName" /> &#32;<br />
				&#35;<xsl:value-of select="//consumerID" />
			</span>
			<span id="menu">
				<xsl:call-template name="a">
					<xsl:with-param name="href" select="concat('id=',$id,'&amp;xsl=basics')" />
					<xsl:with-param name="text" select="'Basics'" />
				</xsl:call-template>&#32; &#124; &#32;
				<a href="#"
onClick="showData('process.asp?id={$id}&amp;xsl=intake','body');return
false;">Intake</a>&#32; &#124; &#32;
				<a href="#"
onClick="showData('process.asp?id={$id}&amp;xsl=goals','body');return
false;">Goals and / or <abbr title="Independent Living Plan">I L P
</abbr></a>&#32; &#124; &#32;
				<a href="#"
onClick="showData('process.asp?id={$id}&amp;xsl=eContacts','body');return
false;">Emergency Contacts</a>
				&#32; &#124; &#32;
				<b>
					<a href="#"
onClick="showData('process.asp?id={$id}&amp;xsl=contacts','body');return
false;">
						<xsl:choose>
							<xsl:when test="//status = '' or //status = 'Open'">
								Contacts
							</xsl:when>
							<xsl:otherwise>
								Contacts
							</xsl:otherwise>
						</xsl:choose>
					</a>
				</b>
             --- etc ----