<xsl:template match="/*/*">
        | <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
        ---
        <xsl:value-of select="preceding-sibling::*[name()]"/> |
</xsl:template>

Shouldn't the second clause above output the value
of the name of the preceding sibling?  It seems to be
outputting the text content of the first element on
the page.  I can't understand why?

All I ever do is ask questions here... many thanks for
all the help I get; I can repay you on the Perl lists
at activestate.com....

Cheers
Lee