Re: Mason 2.0 thoughts

> I totally agree. In my Mason 2.0 notes, I mentioned that I wanted to
> extend the CWC feature to allow calling a subroutine, something  
> like how
> TT2 does filters.
>
>   <&| caching_subroutine(), ... &>
>
>   [content]
>
>   </&>
>
> Which is a lot like TT:
>
>   [% USE foo = Filter::Foo %]
>   [% FILTER foo(...) %]
>
>   some content
>
>   [% END %]
>
>> So IMO it would be great to have a special syntax for these  
>> filters (or to
>> co-opt an existing syntax like <% %>), a syntax that was nestable,  
>> and not
>> line-based, and able to handle arbitrary Perl arguments.
>
> THe CWC syntax is exactly that syntax!
>
>> Given that, it is somewhat unfortunate IMO that we came up with  
>> CWC first,
>> because such a new syntax would be blamed for cluttering the Mason  
>> language
>> unnecessarily, whereas in retrospect I'd rather have a module- 
>> based filter
>> syntax than CWC.
>
> I think we're on basically the same page. I'm just saying that we  
> can use
> the syntax we have, but extend it to allow calling subroutines,
> components, and "named" filters. Now, I don't know exactly how we'd
> distinguish all of them, but I like the idea.

Ok, we are basically on the same page. Sorry I missed that line in  
the Mason 2.0 notes. Had I seen that I wouldn't have felt the need to  
do quite as much convincing. Ah well, it felt good to say all that. :)

Expanding the <& |&> syntax is fine with me, though definitely a  
little unintuitive given that that <& &> always been exclusively for  
component calls. But at this point we aren't going to be able to  
introduce any new syntax this major without a little confusion and  
grumbling from the Mason old-timers, I expect. :)

Jon


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