From: matt <matt@...>
Date: 2006-12-31T16:19:03+09:00
Subject: Re: ERb Request

Well what it looks like is a bit of preference, and it should stick with
ERb's '<%' tagging convention, so something like '<%*' and '*%>' 
 
It will absolutely need to have mandatory start and end tags that are
distinguishable from other tags, and be able to ignore all data and
information within these tags, sending nothing to the browser (or other
stream)

As far as boundary cases, I think that the following would need to be
considered to start, but I'm sure there are others:

1. nested block comments should be checked
<%* <%*  *%> *%>

2. N start tags and N-1 stop tags
<%* <%* *%>

3. M start tags and M+1 stop tags
<%* *%> *%>

4. Handling of mixed HTML and ERb block comments, both overlapping and
not.
ie. 

  Erb Comment within HTML Comment
  <!-- <%*  *%> -->   

  Overlapping HTML/ERb comment
  <!-- <%*  --> *%>   


I'm sure there are other boundaries to consider, I just can't think of
them off the top of my skull.

My thoughts on a block comment are to allow the developer a bit more
flexibility in documenting the limited amount of coding that belongs in
a Rails View (or any place that a .rhtml file would be used).  We all
know what every for loop is doing when we write it, but returning a few
months later can be agonizing without crucial comments/documentation.  

Our current solutions are HTML comments, and ERb comments.  HTML
comments are passed on to the generated view, so any proprietary
information or inside information that others (hackers, kids,
pranksters, etc) is still displayed, but commented.  As well the HTML
style comments don't prevent the ERb parser from parsing the
information, so if you are trying to comment out a section of code that
doesn't seem to be working, the ERb parser still analyzes it, though
doesn't generate the code.  

ERb style comments are great for simple text documentation, or single
line code comments, but all too often, I've found myself wanting to
block out large chunks of mixed code (HTML and Ruby) that isn't working,
without losing my working context.  My choices are to HTML comment out
the block (to catch all the HTML content) and then to single line
comment out all the embedded Ruby.

By making a block comment for embedded Ruby, there would be a way to
section out large parts of code quickly, easily, and still maintain
continuity of work.

Matt




On Sun, 2006-12-31 at 14:45 +0900, Phrogz wrote:
> matt wrote:
> > Could someone point me to the ERb Homepage, or whom I need to email to
> > make a feature request for ERb.
> 
> Discuss the feature request on this mailing list. If, after discussion,
> you feel it has strong merit, it can be brought up on the ruby-core
> mailing list.
> 
> > PS.  I'm wanting to request that there be a way to make comments in
> > large chunks (like /* */ in C or <!--  --> in HTML), but in a way that I
> > can comment my .rhtml files, without the comments being passed on to the
> > generated code. This way I can make proper documentation comments in my
> > code, without having to give away any information to the general public.
> 
> What would you like it to look like? What edge cases can you think of,
> and how should they be handled?
> 
>