>  I want to find out if the two nodesets share one or more elements. I
  >  only want a comparison regarding their nodenames not the values of
  >  the nodes.  In the above example $me1 and $me2 share the name of one
  >  element: and that is the element "<a/>". So my nodeset comparison
  >  should return "true".

In XSLT 1.0:

<xsl:value-of select="name($me1) = name($me2)"/>

<xsl:variable name="matches">
<xsl:for-each select="$me1">
<xsl:for-each select="$me2">
<xsl:if test="name($me1) = name($me2)">yes</xsl:if>
</
</
</

Michael Kay
Saxonica

In 2.0:

<xsl:value-of select="$me1/name() = $me2/name()"/>