[stringtemplate-interest] template existence testing

[Zenaan Harkness]

Hi, I've come across a feature which I would find useful:

It might sound odd, but I would like to be able to, within an <if(...)>
block, test for the existence of a specific template name.

I need to provide template-level specialization of getter/setter method
bodies, and I'd like the template name to be tested for automatically in
the if block, so that a default method body is used normally, and the
specialization is used otherwise.

It is possible to put a boolean in the Model, but that would violate my
MVC: specializations depend purely on the specific template being used.
The model simply should not know or care whether there is an attribute
method body specialization - it is a view specific thing.

The st code looks like this (attribute "a" is the property/ model
attribute which I am rendering in the template as a getter method):

<if( st_exists("att_"+a.attributeName) )>
   // we have a specialization for this method, include
   // attribute-specific specialization code:
   <("att_"+a.attributeName)()>
   //alternatively:
   <({att_<a.attributeName>})()>
<else>
   return a.attributeName;
<endif>

Barring the if conditional of course - st_exists("att_"+a.attributeName).

Any ideas about how much effort this might be to implement, and if it's
sensible or not?

Thanks in advance
Zenaan

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