Author: perrin
Date: Sun Feb 3 19:36:57 2008
New Revision: 618161
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?rev=618161&view=rev
Log:
Expand information on Petal and Template::TAL
Modified:
perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod
Modified: perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod?rev=618161&r1=618160&r2=618161&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod (original)
+++ perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod Sun Feb 3 19:36:57 2008
@@ -812,14 +812,39 @@
use genuine valid HTML documents as templates, something which none of
these other modules can do. The learning curve is a little steeper
than average, but this may be just the thing if you are concerned
-about keeping things simple for your HTML coders. Note that the name
-is "HTML_Tree", not "HTML::Tree".
+about keeping things simple for your HTML coders. Unfortunately, HTML_Tree
+seems to be a dead project at this point and has not had an update in years.
+(Note that the name is "HTML_Tree", not "HTML::Tree".)
-=head2 Petal
+=head2 Petal and Template::TAL
-A more modern version of the same approach is available in the Petal
-module. Unlike HTML_Tree, Petal is actively maintained. Look for more
-information on Petal here in the future.
+Both of these modules are based on the TAL templating language created by the
+developers of the (Python) Zope CMS. (Petal offers some additions, while
+Template::TAL tries to be a strict implementation of the TAL spec.) The
+basic idea is to make your templates XML documents and use attributes in a TAL
+namepace to specify data, loops, and conditionals. This means it is essentially
+using a mini-language, but the templates end up being valid XML documents, which
+allows them to be edited with XML tools.
+
+There are a couple of downsides to TAL. One is the verbosity. Compared to most
+of the other tools listed here, TAL is very verbose. This is a consequence of
+using XML attributes for everything. Here's an example from the Template::TAL
+docs:
+
+ <li tal:repeat="user users">
+ <a href="?" tal:attributes="href user/url"><span tal:replace="user/name"/></a>
+ </li>
+
+The other issue is the need for your templates to be valid XML (most likely
+XHTML). Petal attempts to be more forgiving by implementing a custom parser and
+allowing XHTML and HTML. This should allow the use of WYSIWYG tools to edit
+templates. In practice though, the custom parser is easily confused by HTML that
+browsers would handle without a problem. A custom parser is also problematic from
+a maintenance perspective since it doesn't benefit from improvements in the
+commonly used XML parsers. Template::TAL uses XML::LibXML.
+
+Both Petal and Template::TAL have seen relatively recent maintenance releases,
+which makes them a much safer bet than HTML_Tree at this point.
=head2 ePerl
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Date: Sun Feb 3 19:36:57 2008
New Revision: 618161
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?rev=618161&view=rev
Log:
Expand information on Petal and Template::TAL
Modified:
perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod
Modified: perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod?rev=618161&r1=618160&r2=618161&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod (original)
+++ perl/modperl/docs/trunk/src/docs/tutorials/tmpl/comparison/comparison.pod Sun Feb 3 19:36:57 2008
@@ -812,14 +812,39 @@
use genuine valid HTML documents as templates, something which none of
these other modules can do. The learning curve is a little steeper
than average, but this may be just the thing if you are concerned
-about keeping things simple for your HTML coders. Note that the name
-is "HTML_Tree", not "HTML::Tree".
+about keeping things simple for your HTML coders. Unfortunately, HTML_Tree
+seems to be a dead project at this point and has not had an update in years.
+(Note that the name is "HTML_Tree", not "HTML::Tree".)
-=head2 Petal
+=head2 Petal and Template::TAL
-A more modern version of the same approach is available in the Petal
-module. Unlike HTML_Tree, Petal is actively maintained. Look for more
-information on Petal here in the future.
+Both of these modules are based on the TAL templating language created by the
+developers of the (Python) Zope CMS. (Petal offers some additions, while
+Template::TAL tries to be a strict implementation of the TAL spec.) The
+basic idea is to make your templates XML documents and use attributes in a TAL
+namepace to specify data, loops, and conditionals. This means it is essentially
+using a mini-language, but the templates end up being valid XML documents, which
+allows them to be edited with XML tools.
+
+There are a couple of downsides to TAL. One is the verbosity. Compared to most
+of the other tools listed here, TAL is very verbose. This is a consequence of
+using XML attributes for everything. Here's an example from the Template::TAL
+docs:
+
+ <li tal:repeat="user users">
+ <a href="?" tal:attributes="href user/url"><span tal:replace="user/name"/></a>
+ </li>
+
+The other issue is the need for your templates to be valid XML (most likely
+XHTML). Petal attempts to be more forgiving by implementing a custom parser and
+allowing XHTML and HTML. This should allow the use of WYSIWYG tools to edit
+templates. In practice though, the custom parser is easily confused by HTML that
+browsers would handle without a problem. A custom parser is also problematic from
+a maintenance perspective since it doesn't benefit from improvements in the
+commonly used XML parsers. Template::TAL uses XML::LibXML.
+
+Both Petal and Template::TAL have seen relatively recent maintenance releases,
+which makes them a much safer bet than HTML_Tree at this point.
=head2 ePerl
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