[stringtemplate-interest] template expressiveness

[Micheal J]

Hi,

> >> stuff[i] gets element at index "i". If "i" is not an integer, an  
> >> exception is thrown. Lists can only be indexed by integers, so  
> >> where did you get the idea I was asking for 
> randomfunction(randomarg)?
> >>     
> >
> > Because that is the equivalent of calling stuff.index(i)
> >   
> It is equivalent to calling "((List)stuff).get(i)", which is 
> not at all arbitrary.

Where would the value of 'i' come from?. Another attribute?. A literal that
is part of the template?.

I'm having a hard time understanding how indexed access increases
expressiveness over property access.

> >> If ST could curry, then it would work...
> >> $stuff:row(color="red"), row(color="blue")$
> >>     
> >
> > Ah!  That doesn't work!  crap. added as a bug:
> >
> > http://www.antlr.org:8888/browse/ST-24
> >   
> I didn't realize that was supposed to work! I saw your other 
> email that 
> it actually does work. This is going to help an enormous 
> amount! I don't 
> believe this is documented, though it is not impossible that 
> I missed it.

It's in a section titled "Applying Alternating Templates To Multi-Valued
Attributes" in the ST manual:
http://antlr.org/wiki/display/ST/StringTemplate+3.0+Printable+Documentation

> I'm not yet sure if what I want is the templates to become a program. 
> Without state, problems need to be solved with special 
> handling, such as 
> the round-robin template application. When the controller doesn't 
> provide the data in quite the needed format for display with 
> ST, there 
> seems there is little else to do except refactor the controller.

Or use a view-specific data formatter/renderer.

> I wonder if a set of templates could provide a Java layer between the 
> controller and the templates. The layer could munge the attributes in 
> whatever complex ways the set of templates require. This  
> seems quite a 
> bit less bad than introducing programming inside templates. Maybe it 
> could also provide attribute renderers? I have always felt 
> funny writing 
> an attribute renderer in Java.

Attribute formatting/rendering could be improved in ST. There have been a
few discussions about this in the past.


Micheal