Re: [Freemarker-devel] Ideal tag syntax; what's your take on it?

Denis Bredelet wrote:
>
> The real advantage of Velocity syntax is that it uses line-ending as a delimiter. That sometimes complicates white space handling but it is visually nicer.
>   
>

Visually nicer? For some cases, I disagree.

http://velocity.apache.org/engine/releases/velocity-1.7/vtl-reference-guide.html

<li>#if( $foo == $bar)it's true!#{else}it's not!#end</li>


I have some horrible examples of Velocity (I just need to find them :-)) 
where the sentences were made unreadable just to avoid extra space or 
line break.

  Some examples of redundant notation in Velocity:

    * Variable reference: #set( $monkey = $bill )
    * String literal: #set( $monkey.Friend = 'monica' )
    * Property reference: #set( $monkey.Blame = $whitehouse.Leak )
    * Method reference: #set( $monkey.Plan = $spindoctor.weave($web) )
    * Number literal: #set( $monkey.Number = 123 )
    * Range operator: #set( $monkey.Numbers = [1..3] )
    * Object list: #set( $monkey.Say = ["Not", $my, "fault"] )
    * Object map: #set( $monkey.Map = {"banana" : "good", "roast beef" :
      "bad"})

    I would prefer (I'm not considering if it is doable):

    * Variable reference: #set monkey = bill
    * String literal: #set monkey.friend = 'monica'
    * Property reference: #set monkey.blame = whitehouse.leak
    * Method reference: #set monkey.plan = spindoctor.weave(web)
    * Number literal: #set monkey.number = 123
    * Range operator: #set monkey.numbers = [1..3]
    * Object list: #set monkey.say = ["Not", my, "fault"]
    * Object map: #set monkey.map = {banana : "good", "roast beef" : "bad"}


    The last one is tricky. It's the Groovy approach for a Map literal, 
but I agree it probably isn't a good idea in a Template language.

http://groovy.codehaus.org/Collections

'(...) Map keys are strings by default: [a:1] is equivalent to ["a":1]. 
But if you really want a variable to become the key, you have to wrap it 
between parentheses: [(a):1]. (...)'


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