I was thinking of making the same suggestion. I've just started experimenting
with XMLC after trying JSP for a new project and running into the problem of
HTML editor incompatibilities - I can do the initial setup of the page in an
editor, but can't use my editor once I convert the page to JSP.
XMLC looks good, though from what I've seen the performance is not great.
Instantiating a complete DOM of the page each time you want to generate an
instance is overkill, IMHO. If I end up using it for the application I'm
considering modifying XMLC to instead use a reinitialize method which restores
the default (from the original HTML) values for modifiable parts of the DOM, and
implementing a cache for XMLC page objects. The cache could also be smart enough
to check for file modifications and reload the XMLC page class when the file
changed.
- Dennis
Dennis M. Sosnoski
Sosnoski Software Solutions, Inc.
http://www.sosnoski.com
"William G. Thompson, Jr." wrote:
>
> Jason, excellent wrap up of were most of us are today! I'd like to
> throw into the mix another approach to generating html. Specifically,
> XMLC from the enhydra project. XMLC completely separates html from code,
> thus eliminating most of the problems you refer to for both jsp and template
> engines.
>
> The biggest problem with the template engine approach is that you are
> forced to use the specific macro language for that particular template
> engine, not to mention the fact that all the code is then locked into
> using it. A particular template engine may offer cleaner syntax than JSP,
> but they both suffer the same woes of html mixed with code.
>
> Using the XMLC approach, the html 'templates' are completely standard
> html. XMLC compiles them to a standard W3C html DOM which can then
> be manipulated from presentation objects. The big wins are;
> 1) html/interface designers can work with tools that understand html.
> (They don't have to worry about breaking template or jsp code.)
>
> 2) developers get access to the html template via a java object that
> implements the standard api from the W3C. (no html with in-line code)
>
> 3) the resulting application can run on any platform that supports
> servlets. (no dependence on a template engine.)
>
> Cheers,
> Bill Thompson
>
> On Tue, 25 Jan 2000, John Hicks wrote:
>
> > >
> > >
> > >The article is available at:
> > >
> > > http://www.servlets.com/soapbox/problems-jsp.html
> > >
> > >-jh-
> >
> > Hi Jason:
> >
> > Thanks for the comparison of template engines to JSP. How about some
> > database examples?
> >
> > WebMacro removes Java from HTML pages, but leaves a Perl-like logic.
> > Couldn't we take Model-View-Controller further?
> >
> > Our XMLServlet uses XML to further remove (database) logic from layout.
> > Maybe think of its XML-tagged instructions as Controller, matching Model
> > and View, neither of which then need know (much) of the other....
> >
> > Thanks
> > John Hicks
> > Cerium Component Software
> > ceriumworks.com
> >
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