I wonder why there is no general "template" language that you can use on any tex...

vog · on June 20, 2010

> I'm seriously considering writing a Python-based "Preprocessor" language which lets me drop in Python code on any file

You are probably interested in Pyratemp – a simple, well-designed and well-documented template engine that allows arbitrary Python expressions:

http://www.simple-is-better.org/template/pyratemp.html

BTW, I personally use the XSLT template language. It is language independent, but still extendable with user-defined functions written in the programming language of your application. Note that despite its name, XSLT does not only provide for XML output, but handles text output and HTML as well. In Python, you can find a excellent XSLT processor in the 4suite package:

http://4suite.org/docs/CoreManual.xml#xslt_engine

However, the syntax of XSLT is a bit clumsy, so I'll probably switch to XQuery in the future.

draegtun · on June 20, 2010

I wonder why there is no general "template" language that you can use on any text/source file

Template Toolkit is such a beast: http://template-toolkit.org/

Beyond its normal Perl (and Python) web templating usage I've also used (and abused) TT for:

* All my static websites

* CSS (dynamic and static)

* Pre-process scripts (including Javascript)

* Multi-lingual email

* Creating (end user) configurable data exports (eg. CSV).

* Websurvey language!

* And probably other things I've (hopefully!) forgotten :)

NB. See "ttree" & "tpage" in docs for standalone usage.

bockris · on June 21, 2010

I'm late to the game but you should check out 'Cog' by Ned Batchelder.

http://nedbatchelder.com/code/cog/

I used it several years ago with great success.

ori_b · on June 20, 2010

We're going back to M4 now, but with python?

edanm · on June 21, 2010

Thanks for that, never heard of that.

Link for anyone interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_(computer_language).

By the way, I really think that to work (i.e. become usable, maybe even popular), this needs to be built on an existing and popular language. Otherwise it's too steep a learning curve.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to put in code in the text file wherever I want, be able to put the value of expressions in the code, and that's it.

vog · on June 23, 2010

M4 is not as unpopular as you might think.

It is the base of GNU Autoconf, so everyone who touched a configure.in / configure.ac file did in fact work on M4 code.

(... which is then expanded to a portable shell script also known as the ./configure script.)