> This is sort of a fuzzy area in the spec, so any help would be 
> appreciated.

I'm not sure it's so fuzzy.  Can you explain why you think it is?

> When an xsl:element contains namespace declarations outside of the 
> 'namespace' AVT, when should those namespace declarations be inserted 
> into the result tree?
> 
> Here is an example of my problem:
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
> version="1.0">
>    <xsl:template match="*">
>      <out>
>        <xsl:element name="foo" xmlns:a="bar">
>          <child/>
>        </xsl:element>
>      </out>
>    </xsl:template>
> </xsl:stylesheet>
> 
> Xalan produces this:
> 
> <out><foo xmlns:a="bar"><child/></foo></out>

That output is not correct.

Xalan-C 1.9 produces the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><out><foo><child 
xmlns:a="bar"/></foo></out>

There was a bug in older versions of Xalan-C and Xalan-J where namespace 
declarations on xsl:element would produce corresponding namespace 
declarations in the result tree, but that was a bug that has since been 
corrected.

I believe Saxon's output in this case is correct.

> However, if I modify the stylesheet slightly...
...
> Xalan and Saxon both produces this:
> 
> <out><a:foo xmlns:a="bar"><child/></a:foo></out>
> 
> Clearly the 'bar' namespace belongs on the 'a:foo' result element., 
> but this begs the question: How can this namespace be in scope for 
> 'foo' depending on whether it is used or not?

Well that's a very different case, because the namespace declaration is 
now required on the foo element.

The real issue is whether a namespace declaration in a stylesheet 
generates a namespace node in the result tree, and in the case of 
xsl:element, it does not.

Dave