[xsl] XPath function for <xsl:apply-templates/>?

[Christian Mahnke <cmahnke.sub@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
might have been asked here before but is there some XPath function that works
like <xsl:apply-templates/>?
This would be good for readability. Ill give you an example, currently I do
this:

                        <xsl:variable name="content">
                            <xsl:apply-templates mode="filter"/>
                        </xsl:variable>
                        <xsl:copy-of select="a18:field('place', $content)/>

What Iam asking for would look like this:

                        <xsl:copy-of select="a18:field('place',
apply-templates('filter'))/>


Any thoughts?
There is probably an extension for this.

Best,
Christian