XSL design question

Hello from an XSLT newbie.

My questions are prefaced with a little background info. Please ignore any
typos. Sorry for the verbosity!

=====================================

The content model for a title is:

<!ELEMENT title (#PCDATA | b | i | tt | index)*>


Here's the template that matches b, i, and tt:

<xsl:template match = "b | i | tt">
      <span class="{local-name()}">
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </span>
</xsl:template>

Here's the template that matches <index>:

<xsl:template match = "index">
      <a name="{generate-id()}"/>
</xsl:template>


Now, I can process <title> elements like this:

<xsl:template match = "title">
      <h2>
            <xsl:apply-templates/>
      </h2>
</xsl:template>

Let's say I want to create a Table of Contents.

This Table of Contents should not include the <index> elements.

The following will not work (obviously) because any <index> element will be
re-processed.

<xsl:template name="make_toc">
      <xsl:for-each select="//title">
            <p class="toc">
                  <xsl:apply-templates/>
            </p>
      </xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

This won't work either:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(self::index)]"/>

This, too will not work:

<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(descendant::index)]"/>

TWO QUESTIONS:

1) Must I use modes?

This would involve a template like this:

<xsl:template match = "index" mode = "NO_INDEX"/>  <!-- EMPTY TEMPLATE -->

I would need to create "NO_INDEX" mode templates of any element that could
contain an <index> element, right?


2) Why doesn't <xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(descendant::index)]"/>
process all elements except <index> elements?


Sorry for the trivial questions. I remember cold sweats when we studied
recursion in school.

Thanks,

Pete Carey












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