White space control when formatting for ascii text

[Rick Anderson <rianders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm attempting to transform some xml into nicely formatted ascii style
text instead of to html.  I've been using tabs to align my columns but
sometimes I get extra tabs. I don't know why.

It seems to be very difficult to control the white space in the style
sheet.  Is there a way to make the white space more visibile for better
debugging? 

I switched to using the unicode characters for return and tab.  
return = 
 and tab = 	 so that I could know what tabs and line
breaks I was putting in.

Maybe I've missed something.

Style sheet output:
-------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
This is a listing of fields by category

Category:  People

PersonID        Global unique identifier for a person.
      SSN       Social Security Number
      Firstname First Name
      Lastname  Last Name
      Middlename        Middle Name
      DOB       Date of birth
      Gender    Gender of the person.
^
|--------no reason for tab here.

Style sheet:
------------
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
                xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform";>
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>

<xsl:template match="fieldlist">
<xsl:text>This is a listing of fields by category&#xA;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="table">
<xsl:text>&#xA;</xsl:text>
<xsl:text>Category:  </xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="name">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
<xsl:text>&#xA;&#xA;</xsl:text>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="field">
<xsl:value-of select="@name"/>
<xsl:text>&#9;</xsl:text>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>


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

</xsl:stylesheet>

Original xml:
-------------
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE fieldlist SYSTEM "fieldlist.dtd">
<fieldlist>
  <table>
    <name>People</name>

    <field name="PersonID" type="Number(10)" keytype="PRIMARY KEY">
      <desc>Global unique identifier for a person.
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="SSN" type="varchar2(9)" keytype="NOT NULL">
      <desc>Social Security Number
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="Firstname" type="varchar2(20)" keytype="">
      <desc>First Name
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="Lastname" type="varchar2(20)" keytype="">
      <desc>Last Name
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="Middlename" type="varchar2(20)" keytype="">
      <desc>Middle Name
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="DOB" type="Date" keytype="">
      <desc>Date of birth
      </desc>
    </field>

    <field name="Gender" type="char(1)" keytype="">
      <desc>Gender of the person.
      </desc>
    </field>
  </table>
</fieldlist>

______________________________________________________
Rick Anderson	| rianders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
________________|_____________________________________
Continuous Education & Outreach
Manager of Computer Systems,  (732)932-5071
______________________________________________________



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