According to Joerg Heinicke on Wed, Dec 19, 2001 at 12:57:23AM +0100:
....
>  
>  <xsl:template match="alt">
>      <xsl:apply-templates select="@*[name()=$output]"/>
>  </xsl:template>

yup, of course - that is what I need - but still a nagging issue:
I want to put markup in the attribute but that is illegal
viz.

xml:
John <alt executive="is creating" other="has created"
another="<i> will</i> create"/>

I like the idea of putting these alt(ernates) in attributes
rather than as tags cause it is much easier to maintain and much
more readable in the xml but - I am asking for too much in the
request above, it seems.

-- 
Eric Smith - currently using xalan and xsltproc - what a difference speed makes - and fop on
 linux

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list