In the xslt world there is no widely used custom to think of stylesheet members as of public and private in contrast to other programming languages like C++/java/c# where access modifiers are essential. The reason is in complexity of stylesheets: the less size of code - the easier to developer to keep all details in memory. Whenever xslt program grows you should modularize it to keep it manageable.

At the point where modules are introduced one starts thinking of public interface of module and its implementation details. This separation is especially important for the template matching as you won't probably want to match private template just because you've forgotten about some template in implementation of some module.

To make public or private member distinction you can introduce two namespaces in your stylesheet, like:

• xmlns:t="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/public" - for public members;

• xmlns:p="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/private/expression.xslt" - for private members.

For the private namespace you can use a unique name, e.g. stylesheet name as part of uri.

The following example is based on jxom. This stylesheet builds expression from expression tree. Public part consists only of t:get-expression function, other members are private:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
  xmlns:t="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/public"
  xmlns:p="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/private/expression.xslt"
  xmlns="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/download/jxom.zip"
  xpath-default-namespace="http://www.nesterovsky-bros.com/download/jxom.zip"
  exclude-result-prefixes="xs t p">

  <xsl:output method="text" indent="yes"/>

  <!-- Entry point. -->
  <xsl:template match="/">
    <xsl:variable name="expression" as="element()">
      <lt>
        _{<mul>
            <var name="b"/>
            <var name="b"/>
          </mul>
          <mul>
            <mul>
              <int>4</int>
              <var name="a"/>
            </mul>
            <var name="c"/>
          </mul>}
        <double>0</double>
      </lt>
    </xsl:variable>

    <xsl:value-of select="t:get-expression($expression)" separator=""/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!--
    Gets expression.
      $element - expression element.
      Returns expression tokens.
  -->
  <xsl:function name="t:get-expression" as="item()*">
    <xsl:param name="element" as="element()"/>

    <xsl:apply-templates mode="p:expression" select="$element"/>
  </xsl:function>

  <!--
    Gets binary expression.
      $element - assignment expression.
      $type - expression type.
      Returns expression token sequence.
  -->
  <xsl:function name="p:get-binary-expression" as="item()*">
    <xsl:param name="element" as="element()"/>
    <xsl:param name="type" as="xs:string"/>

    <xsl:sequence select="t:get-expression($element/*[1])"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="' '"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="$type"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="' '"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="t:get-expression($element/*[2])"/>
  </xsl:function>

  <!-- Mode "expression". Empty match. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="@*|node()">
    <xsl:sequence select="error(xs:QName('invalid-expression'), name())"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". or. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="or">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '||')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". and. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="and">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '&&')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". eq. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="eq">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '==')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". ne. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="ne">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '!=')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". le. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="le">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '<=')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". ge. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="ge">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '>=')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". lt. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="lt">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '<')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". gt. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="gt">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '>')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". add. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="add">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '+')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". sub. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="sub">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '-')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". mul. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="mul">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '*')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". div. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="div">
    <xsl:sequence select="p:get-binary-expression(., '/')"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". neg. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="neg">
    <xsl:sequence select="'-'"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="t:get-expression(*[1])"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". not. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="not">
    <xsl:sequence select="'!'"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="t:get-expression(*[1])"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". parens. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="parens">
    <xsl:sequence select="'('"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="t:get-expression(*[1])"/>
    <xsl:sequence select="')'"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". var. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression" match="var">
    <xsl:sequence select="@name"/>
  </xsl:template>

  <!-- Mode "expression". int, short, byte, long, float, double. -->
  <xsl:template mode="p:expression"
    match="int | short | byte | long | float | double">
    <xsl:sequence select="."/>
  </xsl:template>

 </xsl:stylesheet>