> ancestor::*/@attr
>    gets you the attribute nodes themselves (from nearest to furthest)
>    this is often good enough, because if (for example), you ask for the
>    value of this node set, you'll get the value of the first one (the nearest)

I don't think so. The first in this case is the first in document order,
which isn't the nearest in the ancestor axis. The value of a node-set is
*always* the value of the first node in document order. So the correct path is

ancestor::*[@attr][1]/@attr

Knowing the right order appears to be a little bit confusing sometimes.

Cheers,
Oliver


/-------------------------------------------------------------------\
|  ob|do        Dipl.Inf. Oliver Becker                             |
|  --+--        E-Mail: obecker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx             |
|  op|qo        WWW:    http://www.informatik.hu-berlin.de/~obecker |
\-------------------------------------------------------------------/


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