diff --git a/core/vector/table.xml b/core/vector/table.xml
index fb64a47d..0e73f1aa 100644
--- a/core/vector/table.xml
+++ b/core/vector/table.xml
@@ -160,7 +160,11 @@
       <const name="{@__tid@}_RATE_TABLE"
              type="float"
              desc="{@__tname@} table; {@__desc@}"
-             values="@data@" />
+             values="-">
+        <!-- `@values="-"` above tells TAME to read the value from the
+             child text node -->
+        <param-copy name="@data@" />
+      </const>
     </if>
     <unless name="@data@">
       <const name="{@__tid@}_RATE_TABLE"
diff --git a/src/current/compiler/js.xsl b/src/current/compiler/js.xsl
index e9eaccef..d16cab7a 100644
--- a/src/current/compiler/js.xsl
+++ b/src/current/compiler/js.xsl
@@ -472,7 +472,7 @@
   <param name="const" as="element( lv:const )" />
 
   <variable name="values-def" as="xs:string?"
-            select="$const/@values" />
+            select="compiler:const-values( $const )" />
 
   <choose>
     <when test="$values-def and contains( $values-def, ';' )">
@@ -487,6 +487,21 @@
 </function>
 
 
+<function name="compiler:const-values" as="xs:string?">
+  <param name="const" as="element( lv:const )" />
+
+  <!-- @values="-", a convention from command-line programs where '-' means
+       "read from stdin", will take the value from the child text of the
+       constant; this is done because Saxon performs very, very poorly on
+       huge single-line attributes (e.g. 60s for ~20MiB single-line
+       attribute) -->
+  <sequence select="if ( $const/@values = '-' ) then
+                        $const/text()
+                      else
+                        $const/@values" />
+</function>
+
+
 <!--
   Produce a sequence of items
 
@@ -505,7 +520,9 @@
 
     <when test="$set/@values and $allow-values">
       <sequence select="tokenize(
-                          normalize-space( $set/@values ), ',' )" />
+                          normalize-space(
+                            compiler:const-values( $set ) ),
+                          ',' )" />
     </when>
 
     <otherwise>
diff --git a/src/current/include/preproc/template.xsl b/src/current/include/preproc/template.xsl
index 7b7ff765..653fb86d 100644
--- a/src/current/include/preproc/template.xsl
+++ b/src/current/include/preproc/template.xsl
@@ -653,11 +653,13 @@
   <variable name="varname" select="@name" />
   <variable name="param" select="$params[ @name=$varname ]" />
 
-  <variable name="copy" as="node()*">
+  <variable name="copy">
     <choose>
-      <!-- TAMER desugared @values@ application convention (see tplshort.rs) -->
-      <when test="$param/@value">
-        <!-- the value is the name of a template to copy the body from -->
+      <!-- TAMER desugared @values@ application convention (see
+           tplshort.rs); this will go away once the template system is fully
+           implemented in TAMER -->
+      <when test="$varname = '@values@' and $param/@value">
+        <!-- the value may be the name of a template to copy the body from -->
         <variable name="dsgr" select="$param/@value" />
 
         <!-- the template is always positioned as the immeditely-following
@@ -667,6 +669,11 @@
                               /*" />
       </when>
 
+      <!-- non-node value is copied as text -->
+      <when test="$param/@value">
+         <sequence select="string( $param/@value )" />
+      </when>
+
       <!-- old applicatication convention has child nodes within
            `with-param` -->
       <otherwise>