Re^6: HTML::Template - what's the rule of thumb?

I think you're missing the point of a templating system. It has nothing to do with making sure that your display logic doesn't have any programming stuff in it. In fact, I am switching from HTML::Template to Template Toolkit precisely because it has better programming stuff in it.

Within MVC (which it seems you do use - good for you!), you will have three programming layers, hopefully separated by rather strict APIs. Each of the layers, most likely, will have a ton of programming in them, and that's ok. Very often, one cannot convert a data structure into something to be displayed without it.

The notion that templating systems should be as dumb is possible is a mis-meme, promulgated by the facts that

HTML::Template is the most popular templating system in Perl, even though
- it's only a stripped-down version of the first version of Template Toolkit
- it was never meant to be a complete templating system
Most programmers think that designers make for poor programmers
Most programmers make for poor designers

Yes, good display logic is expensive. Sometimes, the only way to do something is to drop into a full-featured language. So?

Remember something - a popular templating system for Windows programs written in Visual C++ is Visual Basic.

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Being unknowing, is not the same as being stupid.
Expressing a contrary opinion, whether to the individual or the group, is more often a sign of deeper thought than of cantankerous belligerence.
Do not mistake your goals as the only goals; your opinion as the only opinion; your confidence as correctness. Saying you know better is not the same as explaining you know better.

Comment on Re^6: HTML::Template - what's the rule of thumb?

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Re^7: HTML::Template - what's the rule of thumb? by CountZero (Bishop) on Oct 17, 2004 at 18:36 UTC
My oh my, old sins do get visited upon us in eternity! dragonchild, I must confess that for the second version of my intranet claims system, I have switched to Template::Toolkit, but it still outputs XML and this XML still gets tranformed into HTML through the services of XSLT and CSS. The reason I (finally) switched to a templating system was that is allowed me to write more "condensed" code, i.e. lots of back-ground functions get "glossed over" by using the template-constructs (such as connecting to the database; managing arrays and hashes; ...). I'm still not entirely happy with the ideas behind templating systems,nor with the practical implementations, but untill I have lots of free time and start writing it myself, I will have to use and make-do with what exists! That being said Template::Toolkit is certainly one of the better templating systems around. CountZero "If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law	[reply]

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Re^7: HTML::Template - what's the rule of thumb?
by CountZero (Bishop) on Oct 17, 2004 at 18:36 UTC

dragonchild, I must confess that for the second version of my intranet claims system, I have switched to Template::Toolkit, but it still outputs XML and this XML still gets tranformed into HTML through the services of XSLT and CSS.

The reason I (finally) switched to a templating system was that is allowed me to write more "condensed" code, i.e. lots of back-ground functions get "glossed over" by using the template-constructs (such as connecting to the database; managing arrays and hashes; ...).

I'm still not entirely happy with the ideas behind templating systems,nor with the practical implementations, but untill I have lots of free time and start writing it myself, I will have to use and make-do with what exists! That being said Template::Toolkit is certainly one of the better templating systems around.

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law

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