From: Navindra Umanee <navindra@...>
Date: 2005-07-17T05:57:54+09:00
Subject: Re: delaying string evaluation

Hi James,

James Edward Gray II <james@grayproductions.net> wrote:
> But if you've found what works for you, far be it from me to  
> complain.  I was just making sure you were aware of another option.

Thanks a lot for the info, I really appreciate it actually.

> Off the top of my head:
> 
> * ERb's <% ... %> flow control construct.
> * ERb's handy "% ... entire line of code ..." shortcut.

#{} allows arbitrary flow control of course.  I think I can see where
ERB might have an edge in that it is easier to mix fixed strings with
Ruby code output.  

> * The ability to control spacing as you can with the special string  
> ERb's constructor takes.

I suppose I do sometimes end up with an extra \n here and there.  I
haven't been bothered too much by it yet, because it generally doesn't
affect HTML rendering at all.  

Another spacing problem right now is that I build my templates from a
lot of sub-templates and I can't see an easy way to get the HTML
indentation right because I never know what level I'm importing a
sub-template at.  I doubt ERb would be of help here though and this is
basically only a concern regarding the readability of the HTML output.

> * ERb's utility methods for HTML and URL escaping.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something, those utility methods are
replicated everywhere in Ruby.  For example, CGI has its own copy of
them and I think WEBrick does too.  Typically the methods are only 1
or 2 lines...  I'm already using my own version of them.

Thanks a lot for the info!  Let me know if I'm missing something.
I'll start thinking about whether it's worth switching to ERB given
the above.

Cheers,
Navin.