Re: Fwd: surprising #include directory

Mark, start filing bugs if you care so much about this stuff.

Stop reposting year+ old messages

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 12:49:08PM -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>    From: Forest <[email protected]>
>    Date: Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 12:25 PM
>    Subject: [Cheetahtemplate-discuss] surprising #include directory
>    To: [email protected]
> 
>    Can someone explain how to make Cheetah look in a template's directory
>    when
>    searching for its #include files?  It seems to be looking in the process's
>    current working directory instead, which has several problems:
> 
>    It is non-intuitive.  When #include is written in a template file, the
>    developer who wrote it would reasonably expect it to find files relative
>    to
>    that template's directory, not some unrelated directory.  (This is
>    especially true for traditional web developers, who use relative URLs in
>    an
>    HTML page to find other pages in the same directory.)
> 
>    It is unpredictable to the template developer.  The directory that
>    #include
>    currently searches will vary depending on the running state of a program,
>    which is very likely controlled by someone else, and cannot be determined
>    when writing the template.  This means a template-only developer has no
>    reliable way to know how #include will behave, which makes it nearly
>    useless
>    to a large part of Cheetah's target audience.
> 
>    It is inconsistent with Python's import statement.  Not that Cheetah's
>    #include and Python's import are the same thing, but since Cheetah is
>    primarily used in python programs, it would be rather convenient for
>    python
>    programmers if they didn't have to remember special-case behavior for
>    commands that pull content in from separate files.  At the very least, it
>    would make Cheetah easier to learn and remember.
> 
>    It fails when a web application is deployed differently.  As long as
>    #include behavior depends on a process's working directory, site
>    administrators will have limited options in how they deploy their web
>    applications.  If their new favorite container runs in a different
>    directory
>    than the original one, the site will break.  That's a rather onerous
>    limitation for a template system to impose.
> 
>    I imagine these problems could be worked around by compiling the templates
>    before deploying, but honestly, that extra work is not worth my time until
>    a
>    site becomes popular enough to need the extra execution speed.  (And for
>    most sites, that means never.)  During development, I would no longer be
>    able to simply save changes in my editor window and reload in my browser
>    window.  I would also have to find a third window and run a command line
>    or
>    three, every time I made the smallest change.  It only takes a few dozen
>    changes to make that a hassle and a waste of effort.
> 
>    Rather than changing Cheetah's default behavior (for fear of breaking
>    backward compatibility), perhaps a more suitable #include path could be
>    set
>    via Template.__init__()?
> 
>    For now, I guess I'll have to avoid using #include in my templates.
>     That's
>    a shame, because #include "header.tmpl" would be an elegant way to express
>    an operation that is very common in web development.
> 
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