> In the context of producing text output, which is how I've
> been seeing XSL, I
> think a literal-text output facility would vastly extend the
> range of what XSL
> could be used for, at very little cost in terms of
> complicating use for other
> purposes.  Not having such facility is a substantial loss. 

I agree, which is why I implemented this in SAXON: give it a try and let me know what you think.

SAXON has an inherited attribute saxon:escape="Y" or "N", so you can write
   <xsl:text saxon:escape="N">fun &amp; games</xsl:text>
to get the output
   fun & games

Or you can put the attribute on any outer element, e.g. xsl:template or xsl:stylesheet. I don't find any conflict here with the philosophy of XSL. You can use it two ways: to produce non-XML formats such as CSV files, or to cheat in getting the XML output you want when XSL is getting in your way. I guess it's the latter that the purists object to.

Mike Kay
SAXON is on http://home.iclweb.com/icl2/mhkay/saxon.html
There will soon be a version that gets even closer to full XSL conformance.