3 ms·
Ah ha! Thanks, gms. But this brings us to the question... are we getting anything by using side-effecty print statements to make web pages? I don't see it.
by vegashacker 17y ago
Ah ha! Thanks, gms. But this brings us to the question... are we getting anything by using side-effecty print statements to make web pages? I don't see it. I think I vastly prefer building up my markup functionally, and then handing it off to the web server when done. Plus, with the PLT way, you avoid writing macros. And a wise man once wrote, "It's considered to be bad style to use [macros] when they're not necessary." ;)
Okay...I'll leave my "Are we getting anything" question there, but it probably shouldn't be answered. Or at least not here. It's essentially the pure-functional versus side-effect debate. To be fair, you get benefits from both, and both have downsides that the others are better at.
- gms 17y agoYes I prefer your approach too (I use a similar approach with the Elisp I use to publish posts on my blog). You are also right that one shouldn't use a macro where a function would do. When looking at PG's approach in ACL, it's worth remembering that he came up with it more than 10 years ago, and consider it in that context. The surrounding ecosystem for web development was a lot more primitive back then (which serves to highlight how impressive his idea is/was).