John,

If the conditions can be expressed as mutually exclusive, order doesn't
matter.

If this isn't possible, simply use the 'priority' attribute on the
templates that implement what corresponds to the <xsl:when> elements,
so that template for the first <xsl:when> has the highest priority,
..., etc.

The template that corresponds to the <xsl:otherwise> element can
safely be given priority -999999999

 Cheers,
 Dimitre

On Sun, Mar 30, 2014 at 11:49 AM, John Lumley <john@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On 30 Mar 2014, at 18:28, Michael Kay <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> I do have a strong preferance for multiple template rules over xsl:choose.
I think this is mainly because it makes it easier to evolve the code as it
develops over time. Though a strong downside is that it can be very hard for
the reader of the code to work out which templates are going to fire under
which circumstances.
>
> I've found that one of the benefits of using xsl:choose is that it keeps all
the 'cases' together in one coherent collection. It also has a well-defined
'priority order'. If you use multiple template rules they can end up scattered
and difficult to view as a complete set and priority can be somewhat awkward.
>
> For example one of my 'pagination' called templates contains an xsl:choose
with perhaps 15 cases (bpage-break?', 'content-fits?', 'can-be-broken?'....)
that would be much more tricky to prioritise as templates.
>
> Of course use of a unique mode with templates can help, but it would still
be nice to collect them all together into preferably a single XML node -
perhaps a package?
>
> John