When you want to do this:
<xsl:for-each select="$some_value in ('a','b','c','d')"><!-- invalid? -->
You have to do this:
<xsl:variable name="items">
<item>a</item>
<item>b</item>
<item>c</item>
<item>d</item>
</xsl:variable>
<xsl:for-each select="$items/item">
<xsl:choose>
<xsl:when test="$some_value = .">
A piggy bank of commands, fixes, succinct reviews, some mini articles and technical opinions from a (mostly) Perl developer.