yes, i got the following to work:

         <xsl:template name="foo">
                 <xsl:for-each select="ancestor-or-self::*">
                         <xsl:text>/</xsl:text>
                         <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
                 </xsl:for-each>
                         <xsl:text>@</xsl:text>
                 <xsl:value-of select="name()"/>
         </xsl:template>

  and since i *know* that everything i am interested in is an attribute, i 
  can make progress now.  

That's __still__ not right: you need /@ not @

David

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