in reply to Why use Templates at all?

It's interesting to me that all of the responses to this post have discussed using templates for creating web pages. Whilst I do like to use TT2 to create web pages, one of the things that draws me towards that system rather than something like HTML::Mason or HTML::Template is that it is purely a templating system and doesn't assume that it's being used to produce HTML. You can use it just as well to produce just about any other type of ourput.

For example, I'm just working on an article which demonstrates how I've used TT2 to produce XML files which make up a data feed that we pass on to our customers. I'm also working on a design so that my company can produce all of its invoicing and form letters with templates. The templates will be LaTeX files which will contain TT2 directives which expand to display the relevant data. In both of these examples, the main advantage is, once more, the fact that the designers of the XML files or the invoice templates don't need to know any Perl at all.

So I use templates not just because it makes it easier to impose a consistant look and feel on a web site, but because it makes almost all of my Perl work easier.

--
<http://www.dave.org.uk>

"Perl makes the fun jobs fun
and the boring jobs bearable" - me

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Re: Re: Why use Templates at all?
by brother ab (Scribe) on Dec 27, 2000 at 19:10 UTC

    HTML generation is the most widespread area where template technichs are used. For the historical reasons. And almost all template kits was started with this goal in mind. Some of them (not only TT2) overgrow these boundaries and became universal template kits.

    I have started to use HTML::Mason about 1.5 years ago to generate HTML pages for Intranet site. Now I use it to generate XML (which then transform to HTML with AxKit). Moreover - I use it to generate C++ code! (and not only C++...)

    -- brother ab