Re: [xsl] grouping + global variable (?) (was re: regexs, grouping (?) and XSLT2?)

[Bruce D'Arcus <bdarcus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Aug 12, 2004, at 3:18 PM, Jeni Tennison wrote:

> I think you need to use Mike's suggestion of building an intermediate
> version of the bibliography. Use the grouping method to create copies
> of the <mods> elements, adding a "year" attribute (or something) that
> holds the appropriate year + suffix. Then, when generating the
> bibliography or list of citations, you only need to pull in the value
> of this 'year' attribute.

OK. I understand this conceptually, but I never understood how to 
create -- and to access -- this "intermediate version".

Mike's explanation was:

> It may be simplest to start by generating a copy of the bibliography 
> in which the list of authors (Doe and Jones) and the year/serial 
> (1999b) appear as additional computed child elements or attributes, 
> and then working with this copy.

Again, I understand this in the abstract; I just don't get the 
specifics behind the verbs "generating" and "working with" here.

How am I generating this "copy", in other words?  Should I, for 
example, be using the new temporary tree functionality? Within the 
context of a variable?  Something else?

I'm pulling my hair out trying to understand this  :-)

Bruce

PS - My denseness is no doubt a function of the fact that my day job 
has nothing at all to do with programming; thanks for the patience!