> I am personally fond of using lookup tables. It does not 
> result in a one liner, but might make things clearer. 
> Besides, you can put these lookup tables in separate 
> documents as xml config files..
> 
> <xsl:variable name="lookup-data">
>   <item id="">background_bright</item>
>   <item id="*">background_faded</item>
> </xsl:variable>
> 
> <xsl:variable name="lookup-ref"
> select="document('')/xsl:stylesheet/xsl:variable[@name = 
> 'lookup-data']/item" />

I like lookup tables too, but I hate this kind of run-time reference to the
source stylesheet. Put it in a separate document in 1.0, or use the variable
directly in 2.0.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/