Well after success with my first recursive template I was all set to
make one of my own, but now shamefully am coming to the list for
advice over something that appears quite simple.

XML ------->
...

Desired output ------->
<!-- @count corresponds to number of times
the preference appeared among the list of <people> --->

..

Stipulation: --------->

<out>'s must be sorted alphabetically, regardless of <option> order.

I'm not sure why you are using recursion ... I
hope the following helps.  BTW, I think your
desired output count was wrong for the third item.

T:\ftemp>type steve.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<data>
  <options>
    <o type="A">who</o>
    <o type="A">what</o>
    <o type="A">when</o>
    <o type="B">how</o>
    <o type="B">nexus</o>
    <o type="B">triumph</o>
    <o type="C">alligator</o>
    <o type="C">spurn</o>
  </options>
  <people>
    <person pref="who" />
    <person pref="nexus" />
    <person pref="how" />
    <person pref="alligator" />
    <person pref="spurn" />
    <person pref="triumph" />
    .... etc ....
  </people>
</data>

T:\ftemp>type steve.xsl
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                xmlns:steve="urn:x-steve"
                version="1.0">

<xsl:template match="/data">
  <xsl:variable name="people" select="people/person"/>
  <xsl:variable name="options" select="options/o"/>

  <output>
    <xsl:for-each select="$options">
      <xsl:sort select="@type"/>
      <xsl:if test="generate-id(.)=
                    generate-id($options[@type=current()/@type][1])">
        <out type="{@type}"
             count="{count($people[@pref=$options[@type=current()/@type]])}"
/>
      </xsl:if>
    </xsl:for-each>
  </output>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>
T:\ftemp>xslt steve.xml steve.xsl con
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<output xmlns:steve="urn:x-steve">
   <out type="A" count="1"/>
   <out type="B" count="3"/>
   <out type="C" count="2"/>
</output>
T:\ftemp>

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