Monks ~

I'm developing a web site using templates. Some time ago I created a small script to parse a template file, suck up all the template VARiables and IFs, and spit them out into a nicely formatted template assignment, kinda like this:

$template->param( THIS_IS_A_LONG_VARIABLE_NAME  => ,
                  ANOTHER                       => ,
                  YOU_GET_THE_IDEA              =>
                 );
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This makes it very easy to (a) make sure I get all the template variables the first pass, and (b) paste this block into the script and fill in the blanks. I'm using a format to make sure the "=> ," lines up correctly, which makes it easier to read and edit.

Today I decided that the whole operation just took too damn long, so I've been fiddling with the Win32::Clipboard (won't work in Debian, sadly ;). It all works nicely except for the format, because I'm ".=" assigning to a variable, then setting the clipboard to that variable. I figure I have two options:

1. Parse everything before assignment, figure out the longest line, pad all the other lines. *Ick*
2. Write the format to a variable (or a variable pretending to be a filehandle) instead of a filehandle.

That's where I'm stuck. The second option is much cleaner, assuming it's possible. Ideas anyone?

Thanks!

P.S. For those who haven't used Win32::Clipboard, it's pretty simple. Here's the code that does stuff:

    $clipboard = Win32::Clipboard();
    $clipboard->Set( $temp );
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