Using velocity, I have become increasingly frustrated with trying to control
whitespace.
I am generating source-code and therefore tight control of indentation is of
great benefit to me.
my velocity statements are nested to such a degree that indentation of *them*
is important for maintenance of the template. The example below is a real
snippet from a template I'm building. Obviously, the whitespace for documents
produced will be a real mess with tabs everywhere, though it is (relatively)
readable - which illustrates my point, it seems difficult to control whitespace
without sacrificing readability. Both readability of the produced source-code
document and of the template are important to me.
example:
#if( $xpath.single( $class, "field/@default" ) )
#set( $initialiserName = "initialise${classname}" )
void ${classname}::${initialiserName}(){
#foreach( $field in $class.getChildren( "field" ) )
#set( $manyAtt = xpath.single( $field, "@many" ) )
## don't worry about many's
#if( !$manyAtt || !( "true".equals( $manyAtt ) ) )
#set( $defaultAtt = $xpath.single( $field, "@default" ) )
#if( $defaultAtt )
#set( $staticAtt = $xpath.single( $field, "@static" ) )
#if( "true".equals( $staticAtt ) )
#if( $xpath.single( $field, "@bean|@state" )
set${utils.cap( $xpath.single( $field, "@name" )} )}( ${xpath.single( $field,
"@default" )} );
#else
${xpath.single( $field,"@name" )} = ${xpath.single( $field,"@default" )};
#end
#end
#end
#end
#end
I have known people hack velocity to cut out any whitesapce on a line directly
before a velocity directive (#), which might work in my case.
I can't hepl think though that there must be a better way.
I was considering if it might be possible to get some control in there which
would give the template functionality to allow output from the merge to be
written to the writer or ignored say by something like ${vel.stop()} and
${vel.go()} (by popping some piece of the running velocity class into the
context)
so you may get
${vel.stop}
#foreach( $class in $classes)
#foreach( $method in $class.methods )
This line will not get written out to the document
${vel.go} This line will! ${vel.stop} This one won't
#end
#end
which would likely approximate to something like
This line will!
This line will!
This line will!
Alternatively #on #off directives.
What are peoples thoughts on this? is something like this already available?
how do other people get around the whitespace nightmare, or is it just me?
regards
T
