I have been working on my XSLT page and have a couple questions on flow.

In my example XSLT file, I have have 4 Templates.  Based on how mine works I 
think I understand how the flow works but am not sure.

It seems that only the 1st template is the driving template, similar to 
Main() in C or the startup function in any program.  If I don't call any 
other function, from a startup function then only the startup function gets 
executed even if there there are other functions in my program (discounting 
events, of course).

In XSLT, it seems that the 1st template is like your startup routine.  If 
you don't do an <xsl:apply-templates> or <xsl:call-template> only this 1st 
template will get run and it will execute all the commands in it until it 
hits the </xsl:template> tag.

All the other templates get executed only if they are applied or called.

This seems to be what happens.  If I take all the apply-templates out of my 
1st template, none of the other templates get executed and all the 1st 
template does.

I am a little confused on the necessity of using the <xsl:copy> (except to 
soft code the root element), as in my example.  As it works exactly the same 
if I change it to <REPORTING>.  In the copy case, it will put whatever my 
root element is as my new root element and the other case will put 
<REPORTING> as my root element.  Other than that, there doesn't seem to be 
any difference.

I also am a little confused as to the use of "/*" vs "/" vs "REPORT" in my 
first template line.

Both "/*" and "REPORT" give me the same results.  But if I have "/" and 
<xsl:copy>, I don't get a root tag.  If I do "/" and "<REPORTING> (in place 
of the <xsl:copy>), it works fine with <REPORTING> as my root tag.

************************************************
<xsl:stylesheet
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    version="1.0">

 <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes"/>

 <xsl:template match="REPORT">
  <xsl:copy>
   <xsl:apply-templates
  select="FORMS/FORM/FIELDS/*[not(starts-with(name(), 'SCMCOMMENTS')) and
not(starts-with(name(), 'GEN_COMMENTS')) and not(starts-with(name(),
'CMPHIST_TXT'))]"/>
   <form>
    <sectionNumber>0</sectionNumber>
    <primary>True</primary>
    <formName>
     <xsl:value-of select="FORMS/FORM/@FORMCODE"/>
    </formName>
    <tagName>SCMCOMMENTS_1</tagName>
    <flags>0</flags>
    <format>0</format>
    <value>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="FORMS/FORM/FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(),
'SCMCOMMENTS')]"/>
    </value>
   </form>
   <form>
    <sectionNumber>0</sectionNumber>
    <primary>True</primary>
    <formName>
     <xsl:value-of select="FORMS/FORM/@FORMCODE"/>
    </formName>
    <tagName>GEN_COMMENTS_1</tagName>
    <flags>0</flags>
    <format>0</format>
    <value>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="FORMS/FORM/FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(),
'GEN_COMMENTS')]"/>
    </value>
   </form>
   <form>
    <sectionNumber>0</sectionNumber>
    <primary>True</primary>
    <formName>
     <xsl:value-of select="FORMS/FORM/@FORMCODE"/>
    </formName>
    <tagName>CMPHIST_TXT</tagName>
    <flags>0</flags>
    <format>0</format>
    <value>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="FORMS/FORM/FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(),
'CMPHIST_TXT')]"/>
    </value>
   </form>
   <form>
    <sectionNumber>
     <xsl:value-of select="FORMS/FORM/@SECCODE"/>
    </sectionNumber>
    <primary>True</primary>
    <formName>
     <xsl:value-of select="FORMS/FORM/@FORMCODE"/>
    </formName>
    <tagName>FormFormats</tagName>
    <flags>0</flags>
    <format>0</format>
    <value>
     <xsl:apply-templates select="FORMS/FORM/@*"/>
    </value>
   </form>
   <xsl:apply-templates select="FORMS/FORM/attachments/attachment"/>
  </xsl:copy>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="FIELDS/*[not(starts-with(name(), 'SCMCOMMENTS')) and
not(starts-with(name(), 'GEN_COMMENTS')) and not(starts-with(name(),
'CMPHIST_TXT'))]">
  <form>
   <sectionNumber>
    <xsl:text>0</xsl:text>
   </sectionNumber>
   <primary>True</primary>
   <formName>
    <xsl:value-of select="../../@FORMCODE"/>
   </formName>
   <tagName>
    <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
   </tagName>
   <flags>0</flags>
   <format>0</format>
   <value>
    <xsl:value-of select="."/>
   </value>
  </form>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(), 'SCMCOMMENTS')]">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
   <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
  </xsl:if>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(), 'GEN_COMMENTS')]">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
   <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
  </xsl:if>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="FIELDS/*[starts-with(name(), 'CMPHIST_TXT')]">
  <xsl:value-of select="."/>
  <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
   <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
  </xsl:if>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="FORM/@*">
  <xsl:value-of select="concat(name(), '=', .)"/>
  <xsl:if test="position() != last()">
   <xsl:text> </xsl:text>
  </xsl:if>
 </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
************************************************

Am I close?

Thanks,

Tom