From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-09-27T05:59:46+09:00
Subject: Re: Embedded Ruby and Tag Libs

On 9/26/05, Adam Van Den Hoven <mail@adamvandenhoven.com> wrote:
> I've been dabbling with ruby on and off for a year or so and recently
> more often. At work we do Java development and I keep thinking that it
> would be nice to be able to bring some of the stuff I designed there
> into my own work, which I want to do in ruby.
>
> I was wondering if anyone had thought about adding something like the
> Java TagLibs to ruby (I guess it would embedded ruby). In my case, it
> would make long term maintenance of files MUCH easier as I can give it
> to a non-technical person without much documentation. In most cases
> people who don't understand programming do understand parts of HTML
> markup. If I could hide what is currently inline code behind things
> that look like tags, its easier to give maintenance over to
> non-technical folks.

Frankly, I think that TagLibs are overblown nonsense ;) You can
implement much of this with Amrita, I think, which completely separates
code from data. Even with erb/eruby, though, you could do something
like:

<table>
  <% max = data.size
     data.each_with_index do |el, ix| %>
    <tr class="<%= (((ix % 2) == 0) ? "even" : "odd") +
		   ((ix == max) ? " last" : "") %>">
    <td><%= el %></td>
  </tr>
  <% end %>
</table>

There's other ways to do this, but as I don't really do a lot of stuff
that needs this, this is simple enough.

-austin
--
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca