Explanation on why certain nodes show up - xslt

Question

All-
Very new to XSLT. I could use some help to understand some basic.
the xml
<root>
<Article>
<Bullettext>10,00 </Bullettext>
<Bullettext>8,00 </Bullettext>
</Article>
<Article>
<something>some text</something>
</Article>
<Article>
<Corpsdetexte>Bulgaria</Corpsdetexte>
<Bullettext>15,0 </Bullettext>
<Bullettext>10,0 </Bullettext>
</Article>
<Article>
<Corpsdetexte>Somaialia</Corpsdetexte>
<bunk>Test</bunk>
<Bullettext>15,1</Bullettext>
<Bullettext>10,2</Bullettext>
<Bullettext>20,3</Bullettext>
<Bullettext>25,4</Bullettext>
<Bullettext>30,5 </Bullettext>
</Article>
</root>
XSLT 1
<xsl:stylesheet
version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>
<!-- copy all elements as is -->
<xsl:template match="node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- process only the first bullet text element under this template -->
<xsl:template match="Bullettext[not(preceding-sibling::*[1][name()='Bullettext'])]">
<!-- find the element that we want to stop at -->
<xsl:variable name="stop" select="./following-sibling::*[name() != 'Bullettext'][1]"/>
<LIST>
<xsl:choose>
<!-- first, the simple case: there's no element we have to stop at -->
<xsl:when test="not($stop)">
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="item"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="./following-sibling::Bullettext" mode="item"/>
</xsl:when>
<!-- is this required -->
<!-- transform all elements between the start and stop index into items -->
<xsl:otherwise>
<xsl:variable name="start_index" select="count(preceding-sibling::*) + 1"/>
<xsl:variable name="stop_index" select="count($stop/preceding-sibling::*)"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="../*[position() >= $start_index
and position() <= $stop_index]"
mode="item"/>
</xsl:otherwise>
</xsl:choose>
</LIST>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Bullettext" />
<xsl:template match="Bullettext" mode="item">
<ITEM>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</ITEM>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
XSLT 2 _ Notice the missing 'otherwise in the choose.
<xsl:stylesheet
version="2.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>
<xsl:output indent="yes"/>
<!-- copy all elements as is -->
<xsl:template match="node()">
<xsl:copy>
<xsl:apply-templates select="node()"/>
</xsl:copy>
</xsl:template>
<!-- process only the first bullet text element under this template -->
<xsl:template match="Bullettext[not(preceding-sibling::*[1][name()='Bullettext'])]">
<!-- find the element that we want to stop at -->
<xsl:variable name="stop" select="./following-sibling::*[name() != 'Bullettext'][1]"/>
<LIST>
<xsl:choose>
<!-- first, the simple case: there's no element we have to stop at -->
<xsl:when test="not($stop)">
<xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="item"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="./following-sibling::Bullettext" mode="item"/>
</xsl:when>
<!-- is this required -->
<!-- transform all elements between the start and stop index into items -->
</xsl:choose>
</LIST>
</xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="Bullettext" />
<xsl:template match="Bullettext" mode="item">
<ITEM>
<xsl:value-of select="."/>
</ITEM>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
Both give the same result
<root>
<Article>
<LIST>
<ITEM>10,00 </ITEM>
<ITEM>8,00 </ITEM>
</LIST>
</Article>
<Article>
<something>some text</something>
</Article>
<Article>
<Corpsdetexte>Bulgaria</Corpsdetexte>
<LIST>
<ITEM>15,0 </ITEM>
<ITEM>10,0 </ITEM>
</LIST>
</Article>
<Article>
<Corpsdetexte>Somaialia</Corpsdetexte>
<bunk>Test</bunk>
<LIST>
<ITEM>15,1 </ITEM>
<ITEM>10,2 </ITEM>
<ITEM>20,3 </ITEM>
<ITEM>25,4 </ITEM>
<ITEM>30,5 </ITEM>
</LIST>
</Article>
</root>
What is the value of otherwise in the example. And why does it work without otherwise?
Note: this was an answer to question posed. Sorry do not have a link

Answer 1

Your input does not contain any Bullettext nodes. Therefore, the three templates matching Bullettext are never applied and it makes no difference what they contain.
However, with an input such as:
<root>
<Article>
<Bullettext>alpha</Bullettext>
<Bullettext>bravo</Bullettext>
<text>charlie</text>
<Bullettext>delta</Bullettext>
</Article>
</root>
you will see a difference: the first XSLT will return:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<Article>
<LIST>
<ITEM>alpha</ITEM>
<ITEM>bravo</ITEM>
</LIST>
<text>charlie</text>
<LIST>
<ITEM>delta</ITEM>
</LIST>
</Article>
</root>
while the second one will produce only:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
<Article>
<LIST/>
<text>charlie</text>
<LIST>
<ITEM>delta</ITEM>
</LIST>
</Article>
</root>