I'd rather gnaw my arm off than recommending the use of a templating
system to anyone. I tried quite a few and hated each one of them.
Perl already is the best templating system around with all its
capabilities of interpolating variables and code in strings. Templating
systems tend to come with their own syntax. This is a waste of time when
considering that one already knows Perl.
I think we're talking about two different templating systems. I actally
haven't used many of the template modules found on CPAN, as the company I
worked for rolled out their own templating module.
It was a "pure template module" with almost no possibilities when it came
to logic. All the logic still resided in the Perl scripts.
Example #1: Substitution of values
script.pl
---------
$Template->subst( 'FIRSTNAME', $firstname );
$Template->subst( 'LASTNAME', $lastname );
script.thtml
------------
<b>Firstname:</b> <!-- %%FIRSTNAME%% --><br />
<b>Lastname:</b> <!-- %%LASTNAME%% --><br />
Example #2: List
script.pl
---------
$Template->create_list( 'PERSONS', 'FIRSTNAME', 'LASTNAME' );
$Template->sort_list( 'PERSONS', 'LASTNAME,STR,ASC;FIRSTNAME,STR,ASC);
foreach ( @Persons ) {
$Template->push_list( 'PERSONS', $_>firstname(), $_->lastname() );
}
$Template->done_list( 'PERSONS' );
script.thtml
------------
<!-- %%PERSON_LIST BEGIN%% -->
<!-- %%LASTNAME%% -->, <!-- %%FIRSTNAME%% --><br />
<!-- %%PERSON_LIST END%% -->
Very easy, as we had an own department with designers who knew little or
nothing about programming.
I see that a lot (too many, probably) of the template solutions found on
CPAN involves including logic. I agree with you; that's bad. But for
easy things like above (lists, substitutions etc.), I still think that
separating Perl code from HTML (or whatever format we're using) is the
best thing in the end.
One example comes to my mind: Let's say you have a script which should
output the same thing, but to different medias (HTML, pure text etc.).
Wouldn't it be better to have separate template files depending on the
media and letting the script choose which template to use from the context?
Just my $0.02.
--
Tore Aursand <
[email protected]>
"Writing is a lot like sex. At first you do it because you like it.
Then you find yourself doing it for a few close friends and people you
like. But if you're any good at all, you end up doing it for money."
(Unknown)
