Re: comments trump newline?

Bug filed at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2002691&group_id=794&atid=100794

On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 11:33 AM, Jonathan Revusky <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Zemian Deng <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Okay, I did more experiments, and I got even more confused. :(
>>
>> Example1 template:
>> ONE
>> <#-- c1 -->
>> <#nt>
>> <#-- c2 -->
>> THREE
>>
>> Example1 output:
>> ONE
>> THREE
>
> Hmm, that's probably a bug, even though it kind of makes sense if you
> get into a very complex mental model of what the whitespace stripping
> does. I mean, it has to do with the fact that the whitespace trimming
> algorithm is actually stripping the whitespace at two levels. It
> ignores the whitespace between comments, or between macros, or, for
> example, between a command and a macro, that's WS trimming at the
> block or element level, let's say, and there is WS trimming at the
> line by line level. The <#nt> doesn't work as expected above, because
> even if you say not to strip the whitespace at the line by line level,
> it is still stripping it at the block level. Of course, that's a
> description of why it is that way, I'm not saying it's the right
> thing.
>
>>
>> Example2 template:
>> ONE
>> <#-- c1 -->
>> X<#-- c2  -->
>> <#-- c3 -->
>> THREE
>>
>> Example2 output:
>> ONE
>> XTHREE
>
> Well, that is working as it is described as working, which is that it
> is getting rid of the whitespace between the comments c2 and c3, which
> includes the newline. So, in principle, if you wanted the newline to
> appear, you would have to write:
>
> <#--c2 -->X
> <#-- c3 -->
>
> and then what is between the two comments is not whitespace.
>
> As Daniel, said, it is probably true that stripping the whitespace
> between two comments is not the best behavior. I guess I was thinking
> of the whitespace between two macros and between a comment and a
> macro, which should almost always be stripped, and I generalized that
> to the whitespace between any two non-outputting elements, and that
> included between two comments.
>
> Maybe we'll change this for 2.4. As a practical matter, I don't think
> this is causing people a lot of problems out there. Of course, most
> people are outputting HTML anyway, so it doesn't affect them in most
> cases. Of course another way of looking at it is that there is little
> reason to write consecutive comments anyway, since you could just
> write:
>
> <# -- c2
>        c3 -->
>
> so you could conceptualize it that the consecutive comments are
> getting fused into one comment and the intervening whtiespace is part
> of that fused comment...
>
>>
>> So <#nt> has no effect? and what happens in Example2?
>
> Well, I guess the rule about ignoring whitespace between two
> non-outputting elements, in particular between two comments, has some
> anti-intuitive results in these cases.
>
> JR
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -Z
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 8:41 AM, Zemian Deng <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> +1 with Daniel.
>>>
>>> Hello Jonathan,
>>> Yes I can use <#ftl strip_whitespace=false>, but that affect the
>>> entire template, and I only have problem for that single new line
>>> space.
>>>
>>> I have to say this expected behavior is a bit confusing. If you say
>>> "Whitespace between non-outputting elements (comments among them) is
>>> stripped. ", then to me, it's white-space that are enclosed will be
>>> striped, but  a  well defined separated two non-outputting elements.
>>>
>>> For example if I have these
>>> <#if cond>
>>>
>>> </#if>
>>>
>>> or even this
>>> <#-- c1
>>>
>>> -->
>>>
>>> Then the whitespace is stripped is WHAT I expected, but this
>>> <#-- c1 -->
>>>
>>> <#-- c2 -->
>>>
>>> Shouldn't strip my whitespace in between.
>>>
>>> This is just my feedback as user.
>>>
>>> -Z
>>>
>>> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 5:16 AM, Daniel Dekany <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Wednesday, June 25, 2008, 10:14:24 AM, Jonathan Revusky wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> This is the expected behavior, unless your template begins with something like
>>>>> <#ftl strip_whitespace=false>
>>>>>
>>>>> Whitespace between non-outputting elements (comments among them) is
>>>>> stripped.
>>>>
>>>> I hope you don't keep this behavior with comments in 2.4. A comment
>>>> should not influence the output in any way, except that the whitespace
>>>> in its own line should be removed if the comment is the only thing in
>>>> that line (beside whitespace).
>>>>
>>>>> Also, the whitespace on a line that contains only non-outputting
>>>>> elements is ignored.
>>>>
>>>> Except that for user-defined FTL tags you don't know which is
>>>> outputting, so it's not entirely true.
>>>>
>>>>> JR
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 6:39 AM, Zemian Deng <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> Hi list,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have this template:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ONE
>>>>>> <#-- comment here -->
>>>>>> TWO
>>>>>> <#-- -->
>>>>>> THREE
>>>>>> =====
>>>>>> ONE
>>>>>> <#-- comment here -->
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <#-- -->
>>>>>> THREE
>>>>>>
>>>>>> And I get this output:
>>>>>> ONE
>>>>>> TWO
>>>>>> THREE
>>>>>> =====
>>>>>> ONE
>>>>>> THREE
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Should I be getting a empty line above the second THREE? I tried with
>>>>>> multiple empty lines between comments, and they all get stripped out.
>>>>>> Is this expected?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>> -Z
>>>>>>
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>>>> --
>>>> Best regards,
>>>>  Daniel Dekany
>>>>
>>>>
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