Tim, your method of replying/quoting is truly magnificent :)

Comments at the bottom...

> Tim (previously):
> > You'll need to change the ASP page
> > (assuming you've added or removed dynamic content from the 
> > output page), and you'll have to change the HTML template.  
> 
> Ben:
> Ahh, well yes.  For example if you've added/removed some 
> fields from the datasource then you would have to modify 
> both.  It wouldn't be anymore time consuming than doing it in 
> the conventional way, I still believe the time spent flipping 
> between the two files would be a LOT less than having your 
> HTML and ASP developers trying to work on the same file at 
> the same time, which does happen in some outfits.  Not all 
> HTML guys do server-side dev, and vice-versa.
> 
> Tim:
> Ah! I see.  Sorry, everywhere I've worked the developers do 
> everything, except for perhaps graphics.  It hadn't occurred 
> to me that they might be split out into specializations (some 
> doing HTML, some doing ASP). This setup makes a lot more 
> sense in that context.
> 
> Tim, previously:
> > Seems like a lot of management to me; there might also be a
> > time cost in hitting the hard drive twice (?).
> 
> Ben:
> I can't say I've noticed any noticable speed difference.  I 
> don't believe opening a text file and reading it in to be a 
> particualrly costly exercise. Hell, if it bothers you why not 
> cache the HTML templates in the application layer?
> 
> Tim:
> It wasn't bothering me :-), I was just considering some of 
> the ramifications.  I don't think it would be particularly 
> expensive either, since the hard drive's maybe already cached 
> the file.
> 
> Tim, previously:
> >  Second, can
> > this method handle variable-length lists?  For instance, I 
> > query a database for a list of users, and want to display 
> > them...but the HTML page doesn't know how many there are so I 
> > can't put in a series of "[username]" TDs to replace...
> 
> Ben:
> I use a separate template for that row of data.  THe page 
> itself being built up of multiple shared templates.  Yes, not 
> as nice as the one file but it *does* properly separate the 
> data-code from the presentation code.
> 
> Tim:
> So you would usually have several HTML files as building 
> blocks for a single template?  

Yeah.  In some cases I've had to do this due to variable-length lists
(tables of data).  It's not *great* as you have to use multiple files
(hmm, could do it all in one come to think of it) ...but it does have
the advantage of even /less/ stuff to write.  For example, last project
I worked on we made Header, Footer, and Navigation templates and just
re-used all of those again and againt to build all the pages.   The less
the page layout changes the less templates you need.

> Sorry to keep beating this 
> horse, it's a completely different way of looking at things 
> than I'm used to, so I'm trying to follow it through.  The 
> crews I've worked with always embed ASP and HTML together in 
> the same file - one webpage, one file.

I still do a lot of work like this but not by choice.

> I can see how your 
> approach might be more consistent with a multilayer 
> abstraction scheme (ah, "n-tier", to use MS's verbiage).

Yeah, it really does work well for spliting up Presentation and Data
layers, plus the added benefits if you work in teams where some are pure
Front-end coders and can't be trusted with ASP code :)

 .b


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