[xsl] How to cope with the complexity of an XSLT program with thousands of template rules?

["Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Folks,

I have an XSLT program with thousands of template rules.

Ugh!

It's too much complexity for my tiny brain.

To help deal with the complexity I have implemented the following:

1. I split up the template rules across a number of files. Less template rules
in a file seems to reduce the stress on my brain.

2. I make extensive use of ENTITIES. I have come to love ENTITIES! They are
super helpful -- way less errors -- to define a value in one place and then
use the value (via an ENTITY reference) in many places.

3. Hundreds of my template rules are empty, e.g.,

    <xsl:template match="(sid|star)/supplementalData">
        <xsl:param name="TRM_PAR_row" as="element(row)"/>
    </xsl:template>

To shrink things, I changed those empty rules using the XML empty tag
abbreviation, e.g.,

<xsl:template match="(sid|star)/supplementalData"/>

That helps make the files a bit shorter. Shorter is better for my brain.

Question: what techniques do you use to control the complexity of a large XSLT
program?

/Roger