While trying to implement the pattern "Two Step View" as described by Martin Fowler, I had some problems getting the alternate-row colouring of the HTML table to work. This uses the XSLT position() function. You can see the XSLT template for table/row below. However, in the output, the bgcolor attribute of the tr element is always "linen", indicating that the value of position() is not changing as we iterate over table/row elements. Why would this be?
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:template match="screen">
<html>
<body bgcolor="white">
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</body>
</html>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="title">
<h1>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</h1>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="field">
<p><b><xsl:value-of select="@label"/>: </b><xsl:apply-templates/></p>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="table">
<table><xsl:apply-templates/></table>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="table/row">
<xsl:variable name="bgcolor">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="(position() mod 2) = 0">linen</xsl:when>
<xsl:otherwise>white</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</xsl:variable>
<tr bgcolor="{$bgcolor}"><xsl:apply-templates/></tr>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="table/row/cell">
<td><xsl:apply-templates/></td>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Input XML:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<screen>
<title>Dissociation</title>
<field label="Artist">Dillinger Escape Plan</field>
<table>
<row>
<cell>Limerent Death</cell>
<cell>4:06</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell>Symptom Of Terminal Illness</cell>
<cell>4:03</cell>
</row>
<row>
<cell>Wanting Not So Much To As To</cell>
<cell>5:23</cell>
</row>
</table>
</screen>
Output HTML:
<html><body bgcolor="white">
<h1>Dissociation</h1>
<p><b>Artist: </b>Dillinger Escape Plan</p>
<table>
<tr bgcolor="linen">
<td>Limerent Death</td>
<td>4:06</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="linen">
<td>Symptom Of Terminal Illness</td>
<td>4:03</td>
</tr>
<tr bgcolor="linen">
<td>Wanting Not So Much To As To</td>
<td>5:23</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body></html>
Change
<table><xsl:apply-templates/></table>to<table><xsl:apply-templates select="row"/></table>or use<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>or at least<xsl:strip-space elements="table"/>. Currently you are processing all child nodes, including white space text nodes, that way your attempt usingposition()fails.