I've posted quite a bit about the license. Short story is free
for any use, possibly not free if you intend to ship your work
as a product.
See here, or my previous messages, for details:
http://webmacro.org/License.html
Justin
Quoting Kapoor, Nishikant X ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> Justin
>
> Be it WebMacro or FreeMarker, an average developer like me (trying to be
> modest :-) will surely find them quiet useful when developing dynamic web
> pages. I guess, the issue that is of concern of is the one that you left out
> (I'm not sure if that was intentional) i.e. the license. I'm not sure about
> others but that was the ONLY factor I considered going for FreeMarker
> instead of WebMacro. I wasn't having adequate insight into any of these to
> have figured out the REAL difference between the two, anyway.
>
> Nishi
> --People who live in windowed environments shouldn't cast pointers--
> mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.c3ipros.com/nkapoor
> -----------------------------------~~~------------------------------
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Justin Wells [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 12:30 PM
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: WebMacro versus FreeMarker
> >
> > Hi Alex, many of your comments about WebMacro were not accurate:
> >
> > Quoting Alex Smith ([EMAIL PROTECTED]):
> >
> > > 1) Freemarker is template-only package whereas WebMacro tries to go
> > beyond
> > > that with the resource broker(s), template providers and other possibly
> > nice
> > > but unnecessary (in my case) stuff. I wanted nothing more than a way to
> > say
> > > Template t = new Template(new File("foo.template"));
> > > t.output(req.getOutputStream());
> > >
> > > To do this, I had to write my own provider for WebMacro that would pick
> > up a
> > > file based on the filename rather than search for it in the classpath
> > > (default). Freemarker didnt need this as it's a simpler system based on
> > > files and the above is what it was explicitly designed for.
> >
> > Actually, you can just write
> >
> > Template t = new FileTemplate(fileName);
> >
> > the advantage in using the provider is that it caches the compiled
> > template,
> > whereas loading it fresh each time re-invokes the compiler.
> >
> > > 2) Freemarker has a simple script syntax whereas WebMacro is more like
> > Perl.
> > > Hidden in this seemingly innocuous statement is the implementation
> > detail
> > > that greatly affects the performance of the package: WebMacro uses
> > > introspection extensively to find the data in the supplied context
> > whereas
> > > Freemarker opts for an adapter approach where the template writer has to
> > > write an explicit query for a piece of data based on the supplied
> > context
> > > key. That is, if you have
> > > the following line in your template:
> > >
> > > <input type="text" name="name" value="$foo.bar.baz">
> > >
> > > WebMacro will look for bar and baz (and possibly foo) using Reflection
> > > whereas Freemarker will force you to write something like
> > >
> > > if (key.equals("foo")) return "foobar"
> > >
> > > somewhere in your adapter. This is a bit more work but Freemarker's
> > adapter
> > > design is elegant and not much of a hindrance. (If you ever dealt with
> > > java.lang.reflect, you know how "fast" it can be, not to mention
> > potential
> > > stack explosions).
> >
> > This is misleading. WebMacro uses the reflection API to analyze your
> > class exactly once for each class, and then caches that data for the
> > life of your servlet environment.
> >
> > This is the same approach Sun takes with JavaBeans, and is remarkably
> > efficient.
> >
> > If WebMacro re-analyzed every object on every access it would be slow.
> > But it doesn't do that, and is actually very fast.
> >
> >
> > > 3) Documentation. I found Freemarker's docs to be well-organized,
> > coherent
> > > and with a working walkthrough of a guestbook example. WebMacro has the
> > same
> > > but it's about 50% of what it has to be, partially due to its
> > complexity. I
> > > had problems with WebMacro's
> > > guestbook example due to the default template provider's functionality
> > of
> > > looking for a template in the classpath.
> >
> > It's quite straightforward, and hundreds are using it successfully. I
> > admit there needs to be some better documentation--however the lasy
> > couple of releases added a substantial amount of new documentation, so if
> > your comments refer to an older version you might find things have
> > improved.
> >
> > > and last but not least, the claim that many template packages use as
> > bait:
> > > "let the designer write HTML and use our simple syntax to control the
> > data
> > > flow". This is a myth as most HTML designers have a difficult time
> > > understanding foreach loops and other programmatic constructs. Usually
> > good
> > > designers come from art/publishing/media side of the pond and are
> > excellent
> > > visual artists with poor grasp of data structure constructs...and that's
> > > good. I'd rather have a strong artist who knows his craft than a
> > > middle-of-the-road designer who knows Javascript. ("Instead of table,
> > you
> > > have a foreach loop with a single row. - <Blank stare>"). Therefore, the
> > > application developer has to take on the responsibility of marking up
> > the
> > > template. As such, lesser syntax complexity and greater programmatic
> > control
> > > is always appreciated.
> >
> > You can't create dynamic content including tables unless you are
> > prepared to iterate through lists. WebMacro's #foreach is the simplest
> > iteration structure possible, much simpler than a for loop, or while
> > loop, or anything else with a loop condition.
> >
> > JavaScript is about 1000 timesmore complex, and requires a big thick
> > book to learn properly. WebMacro's template script can be fully
> > explained in about three pages (lengthy version) or illustrated in
> > a one-page example.
> >
> > <table>
> > #foreach $thing in $list {
> > <tr><td>$thing.Name</td><td>$thing.Description</td></tr>
> > }
> > </table>
> >
> > The above may be difficult to describe, but given an example like
> > this the vast majority of page designers catch on immediately. A few
> > are so afraid of computers that they refuse to see--but they are a
> > distinct minority (and won't be better served by JSP/ASP/FreeMarker/etc.)
> >
> > Even if you have such designers, a programmer can easily convert a plain
> > HTML file produced by such a designer into the above with little work.
> >
> > A simplified construct like WebMacro's #foreach really isn't hard to
> > understand.
> >
> > Justin
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________________
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