Hi,
Looks good to me! The escaping was added primarily as
a way to look at references and directives, I didn't
think much about the use of \ globally. Your idea of
localizing it to VTL makes more sense as it alleviates
having to use \\ when you want a \. Your approach
is definitely easier WRT to generating java sources with
paths inside, and ASCII art!
+1
jvz.
On Sun, 29 Oct 2000, Geir Magnusson Jr. wrote:
> While looking over list traffic, I saw that Daniel Rall pointed out a
> small, subtle error in the testbed, having to do with how \ is
> processed. The actual issue isn't specifically important. But it got
> me to think about this, and I would like to (well, am already..) make a
> change.
>
> Currently, the VTL parser is such that any \ is presumed to be an escape
> character, whether or not it is part of a VTL construct ( i.e. accessing
> a reference or directive ). The real effect on end users is that adding
> VTL to existing content requires a global modifications, namely
> replacing \ with \\, and I think that this is unreasonable.
>
> For example, if ASCII art was back in vogue, and you were generating
> html code like :
>
> /\/\/\
> | Hi!|
> \/\/\/
>
> and you just ran that through the parser you would get :
>
> ///
> | Hi |
> ///
>
> or had some Java :
>
> String strPath = "e:\\winnt\\system32\\";
>
> through Vel :
>
> String strPath = "e:\winnt\system32\";
>
> The point is that you can't simply take existing content and use it in
> Velocity w/o modifying the 'shmoo', the non-VTL portions of the
> template. I think that is a requirement that shouldn't be...
>
> Proposal :
>
> I am going to remove this functionality, and make the \ an escape
> character only in the following situations :
>
> 1) Whenever you are using a string literal in VTL :
>
> #set $foo = [ "that\'s", "this" ]
>
> 2) Whenever you wish to 'show your underwear' -> when you specifically
> wish to show the literal string for something that is a valid in-context
> reference or a directive:
>
> VTL : The value of \$foo is $foo.
> output : The value of $foo is <value_of_foo>.
>
> VTL : The function to use is \#foreach
> output : The function to use is #foreach
>
> 3) NOTE : It will not act as an escape when you have something that
> looks like a reference or directive, but isn't :
>
> VTL : The VTL construct to show a reference is \$reference.
> output : The VTL construct to show a reference is \$reference.
>
> VTL : The VTL construct to show a directive is \#directivename
> output : The VTL construct to show a directive is \#directivename
>
> (the above assumes that 'reference' is not in the context, and
> 'direcivename' isn't a directive)
>
>
> Summary : I think the only changes a template author should have to make
> to a template's contents is the addition of the VTL references and
> directive structures, and I think this does it. Does this work? Did I
> miss anything? All comments welcome (the sooner the better...)
>
> geir
>
>
