Preprocessors

[tarrou]

Hey all,

I'm an old web designer that is trying to get back into the swing of
things and was wondering if HTML preprocessors were still the best bet
for handling the problem of many different pages that use the same
text. (In my case, it's more than just a menu that's on ever page.)

From what I can find, most preprocessor discussions end around 2001, so

I thought they might be obsolete. In that same vein, did Xframes ever
take off? Are they widely supported?

Thanks for any help you send my way.

Strider

 

[David Dorward]

I'm an old web designer that is trying to get back into the swing of
things and was wondering if HTML preprocessors were still the best bet
for handling the problem of many different pages that use the same
text. (In my case, it's more than just a menu that's on ever page.)

A preprocessor generates static files which makes handling cache
control headers easier. Server side solutions make cache control
trickier but don't have a time delay while the preprocessor runs on all
the files. The preprocessor also means one more button to push. Which
is best depends on your needs (and the size of the site).

From what I can find, most preprocessor discussions end around 2001, so
I thought they might be obsolete.
Nope

In that same vein, did Xframes ever take off? Are they widely supported?

On the web? No. XHTML is only supported by about 15-20%[1] of user's
clients, let alone XFrames.

OpenOffice.org[2] has some support for XFrames, although I've no idea
what form it takes there.

[1] This is a statistic. The usual provisios apply.
[2] The software that you get from the website
http://www.openoffice.org/, not the website itself.

 

[tarrou]

Excellent answer. Thank you!

 

[Alan J. Flavell]

The preprocessor also means one more button to push.

When I was working that way, I defined a Makefile, which applied
all of the necessary steps from author-edited source through
pre-processing to "uploading" to the web server.

Once the rules had been set up in the Makefile, it was actually less
effort to type "make" than to go through the typical interactive
dialogue with an FTP client for uploading static pages! "make" was
quite happy to check timestamps to see which source files had been
modified since the last action, and leave the unaffected ones alone.

There's a bit of a learning curve at the start, but it seemed worth
it.

 

[mbstevens]

Hey all,

I'm an old web designer that is trying to get back into the swing of
things and was wondering if HTML preprocessors were still the best bet
for handling the problem of many different pages that use the same
text. (In my case, it's more than just a menu that's on ever page.)

I thought they might be obsolete.

Not that I know of.
Here's a selection:
http://www.htmlhelp.com/links/preprocessors.html

 

[dorayme]

Not that I know of.
Here's a selection:
http://www.htmlhelp.com/links/preprocessors.html

Hi mb... does your own version work on Mac OS X? I have not
studied the issue, just thought I would ask you.

 

[mbstevens]

Hi mb... does your own version work on Mac OS X? I have not
studied the issue, just thought I would ask you.

I've tested it only on Linux and Windows, both of which I have running.
If you have Perl installed it _probably_ will work -- more likely the nix
version is the one to try first. I'd appreciate your letting me know how
it works out if you try it.

 

[dorayme]

I've tested it only on Linux and Windows, both of which I have running.
If you have Perl installed it _probably_ will work -- more likely the nix
version is the one to try first. I'd appreciate your letting me know how
it works out if you try it.

OK thanks, I will when and if I get around to it... looks like
interesting work of yours...

 

[Leonard Blaisdell]

OK thanks, I will when and if I get around to it... looks like
interesting work of yours...

dorayme, you will have to install 'Developer's Tools' from your CD or
DVD to get 'make'. Perl is already installed but 'make' isn't. You do
have 'Developer's Tools' somewhere on your CD or DVD and installing it
is painless. Some say that finding it on the CD or DVD is the most
difficult part. It opens up a world of possibility.
Using 'make' is easy. Learning how to create a 'Makefile' is beyond my
ken today. I've never tried. I can modify one though. Whoopee!
Find 'Developer's Tools', I believe it's a .dmg, and double click it.
That's it. You now have 'make' and can create a Makefile. You have a
whole lot of other functionality too for development.

leo

 

[dorayme]

dorayme, you will have to install 'Developer's Tools' from your CD or
DVD to get 'make'. Perl is already installed but 'make' isn't. You do
have 'Developer's Tools' somewhere on your CD or DVD and installing it
is painless. Some say that finding it on the CD or DVD is the most
difficult part. It opens up a world of possibility.
Using 'make' is easy. Learning how to create a 'Makefile' is beyond my
ken today. I've never tried. I can modify one though. Whoopee!
Find 'Developer's Tools', I believe it's a .dmg, and double click it.
That's it. You now have 'make' and can create a Makefile. You have a
whole lot of other functionality too for development.

leo

thanks Leo... I will look when I have time... I know how I am
with new toys and I better just delay it for now...