> I'm trying to make a small template that concisely implements 
> atan2, but returns the values in degrees and handles the case 
> where DX is zero.  So far, I have:

<snip/>
> 
> 
> Is there a way to express this in only a few lines without 
> all the verbosity?
> 

Use XSLT 2.0.

Note this will also mean you can avoid converting the doubles to strings and
then back again, which improves performance and precision.

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