Formatting XSL-FO Based on XML Position

Experts,

Pardon the repetition, but apparently my previous format was not as
appropriate as it ought to have been.

Problem:
Create fo:table to format some text occurring after a fo:block.  The XML
input looks like this:

<p tabs="0.2 1.2 2.2">
some text, maybe formatted <b>maybe not</b>, and then:
<tab/>item<tab/>item2<tab/>item3<br/>
<tab/>item4<tab/>item5
</p>

The XSLT I have now for the tab formatting looks like this.  I know it
isn't very good, but I'm not very good at this.  Putting opening tags in
the first xsl:if, and closing tags in a later one does not work - but I
don't know what to do instead ?

<xsl:template match="ws:tab">
        <xsl:if test="position()=1">
                <fo:table>
                        <fo:table-body>
                                <fo:table-row>
        </xsl:if>
                                
        <xsl:element name="fo:table-cell">
                <!-- I know this won't work, see below. -->
                <xsl:attribute name="width">
                        <xsl:call-template name="get-width">
                                <xsl:with-param name="list">
                                        <xsl:choose>
                                                <xsl:when
test="../@tabs">
        
<xsl:value-of select="../@tabs"/>
                                                </xsl:when>
                                                <xsl:otherwise>
                                                There is a way to get
alternative formatting information that goes here. No need to include it
- not relevant.
                                                </xsl:otherwise>
                                        </xsl:choose>
                                </xsl:with-param>
                                <xsl:with-param name="curpos">
                                        <xsl:choose>
                                                <xsl:when
test="preceding-sibling::ws:br">
        
<xsl:value-of select="count(../ws:tab)-position()"/>
                                                </xsl:when>
                                                <xsl:otherwise>
        
<xsl:value-of select="position()"/>
                                                </xsl:otherwise>
                                        </xsl:choose>
                                </xsl:with-param>
                        </xsl:call-template>
                </xsl:attribute>
        </xsl:element>
        <fo:block/>
        <xsl:element name="fo:table-cell">
                <fo:block><xsl:apply-templates/></fo:block>
        </xsl:element>
                                
        <xsl:if test="position()=../ws:tab[last()]">
                                </fo:table-row>
                        </fo:table-body>
                </fo:table>
        </xsl:if>               
</xsl:template>


<xsl:template name="get-width">
        <xsl:param name="list"/>
        <xsl:param name="curpos"/>
        <xsl:variable name="nlist"
select="concat(normalize-space($list), ' ')"/>
        <xsl:variable name="first" select="substring-before($nlist, '
')"/>
        <xsl:choose>
                <xsl:when test="$curpos=1">
                        <xsl:value-of select="$first"/>
                </xsl:when>
                <xsl:otherwise>
                        <!--want list[curpos] - list[curpos-1]...I
think.  But how???-->
                </xsl:otherwise>
        </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>

Obviously, I don't know what I'm doing here. I know I'm supposed to use
fo:table-column to give width information, but I can't see how I can do
that for only columns 1, 3, and 5...especially when I don't really know
how many columns there will be.  In this case, there are 6, but there
could be anywhere from 1-6. 

In the second template, get-width, if curpos(tab) is 1, then I can just
output the first string. But I can't come up with a way to properly
output the rest of the items.  If curpos is 2 or 3, or 4 or whatever, I
want the tab width output to be list[curpos] - list[curpos-1] but I
don't know how to express that here.  

Ultimately, the hope was to come out with something like:

<fo:table>
        <fo:table-column column-number="1" column-width="0.2pt">...???
etc
        <fo:table-row>
                <fo:table-cell><fo:block/></fo:table-cell>
                <fo:table-cell><fo:block>item</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
                <fo:table-cell><fo:block/></fo:table-cell>
        
<fo:table-cell><fo:block>item2</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
                <fo:table-cell><fo:block/></fo:table-cell>
        
<fo:table-cell><fo:block>item3</fo:block></fo:table-cell>
        </fo:table-row>
</fo:table>

Humbly...
KP


 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list