Assiginment to varaibles from jsp tags

Question

is it possible and how is it possible to assign something from jsp tag to an variable declared in scriptlet code - ie. - as below.
also is there a good resource for jsp info - a comprehensive lookup on jsp syntax egs on the web that any one is aware of. - thanks.
i 'm doing - can i use this variable as in below scrpitlet code :
<%! List myAbridgments = new ArrayList(); %>
then - Also at this stage it get a ClassCastException - why would i get that here i dont use this variable - results anywhere else - except in setting the session attribute in the original servlet that calls this jsp page
<jsp:useBean id="results" class="com.bt.ros.Results" scope="session">
<jsp:setProperty name="results" property="*"/>
</jsp:useBean>
the in some scrpitlet code doing:
<%  myAbridgments = results.getAbridgments();
for (int i = 0; i < myAbridgments.size(); i++) {
                abridgment = (Abridgment) myAbridgments.get(i);
                    //out.println(abridgment.geta_volume_id());
%>
<p><input type="checkbox" name="list" value="ON"><span style="font-size:12pt"><jsp:getProperty name="abridgment" property="a_sub_year_volume"/></span><span style="font-size:12pt">,
     <a href="abridgment_link.htm"><jsp:getProperty name="abridgment" property="a_volume_id"/></a>, </span>

Answer 1

yeah, but this doesn't really help me. I am trying (really hard!) to ensure my JSP's don't really contain any "code" as such, just JSP tags.
The end result I want is to include one JSP in another. Now, I "could" just use a <jsp:include.., the problem is that the path to the file I want to include is tied up in an object which I have previously placed in the ServletRequest object. Again, I "could" extract this in the "parent" jsp, and pass it dynamically to the jsp:include, but I don't want any actual Java "code" in the JSP. (There IS a good reason for this, so I can't really comprimise).
The fact that the IS a pageContext.include() method tells me that I can use it. I must be doing something wrong though.
Thanks anyway.