Hi Martin -
Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe I implemented it incorrectly -- it
appears that (at least inXselerator) the content of an attribute is
normalized automatically when you select it. This doesn't happen to the
content of an element. Here's my test:

The xml:
<a>
  <b x="111" y="222
333">44
55</b>
</a>

The xsl:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
  <xsl:output method="html"/>
  <xsl:template match="/">
1.1. @/a/b/@y selected into a variable:
    <xsl:variable name="y" select="a/b/@y"></xsl:variable>
    <pre>
      <xsl:value-of select="$y"/>
    </pre>
:/a/b/@y selected into a variable
    <br/>
    <br/>
2.1. /a/b selected into a variable:
    <xsl:variable name="b" select="a/b"></xsl:variable>
    <pre>
      <xsl:value-of select="$b"/>
    </pre>
:/a/b selected into a variable
    <br/>
    <br/>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

And the result:
1.1. @/a/b/@y selected into a variable:
    <pre>222 333</pre>
:/a/b/@y selected into a variable
    <br><br>
2.1. /a/b selected into a variable:
    <pre>44
55</pre>
:/a/b selected into a variable
    <br><br>

My goal, however, is to get the following for 1.1:
1.1. @/a/b/@y selected into a variable:
    <pre>222
333</pre>
:/a/b/@y selected into a variable
    <br><br>

-------

(Later) I've done a bit more research, and now think that I won't be
able to achieve my goal directly via XSL. According to  the XSL
standard, an attribute's content is _always_ normalized, and there's no
way to act on its non-normalized state. So I think I'm stuck. I think
I'll have to write a filter that transforms
<a>
  <b x="111" y="222
333">44
55</b>
</a>
to
<a>
  <b x="111"> <y>222
333</y>44
55</b>
</a>
and then feed that to a stylesheet that copies the element y.
Do you agree?
Thanks,
- Don