RE: XSLT design good practice

> I'm thinking of issues such as use of named templates, parameters and
> variables, importing/including and so on, and how would these 
> map against
> programming objectives such as maintainability, maximum 
> re-use, simplicity,
> economy of code and so on.

When manipulating subelements within a particular element, make a separate
template for the subelement rather than completing the manipulation from
within the element template, except when the occasion demands it. E.g:

For <list>
	<item>
	<item>
	<item>

Where the third item is to have some specific behaviour:

<xsl:template match="list">
	<xsl:apply-templates select="@*" />
	<xsl:apply-templates />
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="item[position() = 3]">
	.... etc>

Rather than:

<xsl:template match="list">
	<xsl:apply-templates select="@*" />
	<xsl:for-each select="item">
		<xsl:if test="position() = 3>
	... etc
	</xsl:for-each>
</xsl:template>

This approach makes complex restructuring and script updating simpler, in my
experience -
Matt
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