So as not to leave that last problem hanging, this stylesheet fragment works
in Saxon and overflows the stack in XMLSpy:

 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='document']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="document" format="1"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='section']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="section" format="a"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='table']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="table" format="i"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="footnote" mode="footnote">
 <p><xsl:apply-templates select="." />
 <xsl:apply-templates /></p>
 </xsl:template>

However cloning all the footnote[@level..] templates with another 'mode'
allows XMLSpy to run:

 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='document']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="document" format="1"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='section']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="section" format="a"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='table']">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="table" format="i"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="footnote" mode="footnote">
 <p><xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="dup"/>
 <xsl:apply-templates /></p>
 </xsl:template>

 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='document']" mode="dup">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="document" format="1"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='section']" mode="dup">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="section" format="a"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>
 <xsl:template match="footnote[@level='table']" mode="dup">
 <sup><xsl:number level="any" from="table" format="i"
   count="footnote[@level=current()/@level]"/></sup>
 </xsl:template>

Is the conclusion that XMLSpy (this is 2006 Home Edition) remembers a mode
and passes it through to descendant templates justified? And (if so) is this
compliant behaviour?

Cheers
Trevor

-----Original Message-----
From: Trevor Nicholls [mailto:trevor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, 28 February 2006 12:34 a.m.
To: xsl-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE:  Sort of footnote nodes, processing and counting

Thank you Dr Kay. Somewhat abashed, I must confess that I am testing this
project in two environments: XMLSpy 2006 on my laptop and Saxon on the
repository/build server.

Saxon does *not* stack overflow on
----
<xsl:template match="footnote" mode="footnote">
<p><xsl:apply-templates select="." />  <!-- LINE 2 -->
<xsl:apply-templates />
</p>
</xsl:template>
----
but XMLSpy does.