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> It's far easier to make a cut at "no logic apart from boolean checks" and then use a proper client-side framework such as backbone (...) That works if you ar

by Xion 14y ago

> It's far easier to make a cut at "no logic apart from boolean checks" and then use a proper client-side framework such as backbone (...) That works if you are fine with offsetting all (or most) of your presentation logic to client side. But not every web application is the glorified single-page web app, or has significant amount of on-page interaction that would warrant employing a full stack MVC framework on the client side. > Templates should be about how things look like. But also what elements are those things built from. Despite attempts at logic-less templates, the presentation layer still must contain some logic and I see no reason to not apply normal coding principles - most notably DRY - to that logic. That's why I consider it very important for a templating engine to allow for reusing things, and splitting things into parts. Here's where some engines really shine (Jinja immediately comes to mind, followed by Underscore or jQuery templates) and others... not so much.

Xylakant 14y ago
On-page interaction does not require a templating language with logic. You can just as easily calculate the required values in your javascript and then pass the objects on to Mustache. That's a tangential point. I fully agree with you that having some logic in a template language has its appeal. At first glance it sounds like a good idea (oh, I don't have to go back to the code to calculate that value, nice!) However, as I said, it's a slippery slope and depending on where you and your project end up, you may pay a dire price for that. In the end, inevitable, some part of your logic ends up in the template. (Been there, done that, been burnt) Mustache/Handlebars allows for most of what you want - reuse things, split things into parts (templates can include other template) without including logic and thus creates a barrier that you cannot cross. It forces you to adhere to best practices.

by Xion 14y ago

Xylakant 14y ago

On-page interaction does not require a templating language with logic. You can just as easily calculate the required values in your javascript and then pass the objects on to Mustache. That's a tangential point. I fully agree with you that having some logic in a template language has its appeal. At first glance it sounds like a good idea (oh, I don't have to go back to the code to calculate that value, nice!) However, as I said, it's a slippery slope and depending on where you and your project end up, you may pay a dire price for that. In the end, inevitable, some part of your logic ends up in the template. (Been there, done that, been burnt) Mustache/Handlebars allows for most of what you want - reuse things, split things into parts (templates can include other template) without including logic and thus creates a barrier that you cannot cross. It forces you to adhere to best practices.