NAME

Text::MicroMason::Docs::Related - A Brief Survey of Templating Modules

RELATED MODULES

Text::MicroMason is just one of dozens (or hundreds) of templating distributions on CPAN.

This document mentions a few related modules and includes a brief discussion of some similarities and differences among them.

OTHER COMPARISONS

For a more authoritative discussion, see Perrin Harkins' classic article at http://www.perl.com/lpt/a/2001/08/21/templating.html.

For reference, here's a slightly mangled version of the comparison matrix at the conclusion of that article:

		 Scope	 	Style	 	Parsing		Language
  HTML::Mason	 Framework	Callback	Compiled	Perl
  HTML::Embperl	 Framework	Callback	Compiled	Perl
  Apache::ASP	 Framework	Callback	Compiled	Perl and XSL
  AxKit		 Framework	Pipeline	Compiled or 	Perl, XSL and
						 Cached Parse    Mini-Languages
  SSI		 Templates	Callback	Repeated Parse	Mini-Language
  Template Tlkit Templates	Pipeline	Compiled	Mini-Language
  HTML::Template Templates	Pipeline	Cached Parse	Mini-Language
  Text::Template Templates	Pipeline	Compiled	Perl

POINTS OF COMPARISON

There are serveral ways we can differentiate between templating systems:

Perl Syntax vs. Little Languages

Some templating systems use Perl syntax for both interpolated expressions and flow control, including Text::Template, Template::Perl, and Text::ScriptTemplate.

Others use "little languages", including Template::Toolkit and HTML::Template.

Just Templating vs. Web Application Framework

Some templating systems just provide functions to fill in templates, like Text::Template.

Others are part of full-blown web application frameworks like Apache::ASP, ePerl, HTML::Embperl, and HTML::Mason.

Modular vs Monolithic

Some templating systems are not particularly configurable or extensible.

Others support various kinds of extensions, including Template::Toolkit, HTML::Mason and Text::MicroMason.

Interpreted vs. Compiled

Some templating systems repeatedly parse the template from scratch every time it is used.

Others parse the template into an intermediate data structure and then iterate over that each time the template is used.

Others convert the template into equivalent Perl source code which can be compiled into a directly-executable subroutine and used repeatedly, including HTML::Mason and Text::MicroMason.

EMULATED MODULES

Apache::ASP

For an emulation for Apache::ASP, see Text::MicroMason::ServerPages.

Embperl

For an emulation for Embperl, see Text::MicroMason::Embperl.

HTML::Template

For an emulation for HTML::Template, see Text::MicroMason::HTMLTemplate.

See also HTML::Template::Compiled.

HTML::Mason

For an emulation for HTML::Mason, see Text::MicroMason::HTMLMason.

(If you've already got HTML::Mason installed, configured, and loaded into your process, you're probably better off using it rather than this package. HTML::Mason's $interp->make_component() method allows you to parse a text string without saving it to disk first.)

PLP

For an emulation for PLP, see Text::MicroMason::PLP.

Text::Template

For an emulation for Text::Template, see Text::MicroMason::TextTemplate.

SEE ALSO

For distribution, installation, support, copyright and license information, see Text::MicroMason::Docs::ReadMe.