[ic] 5.0 vs New templating system

Paul Jordan paul at gishnetwork.com
Wed Apr 26 13:16:23 EDT 2006


Dear group

I am starting a new catalog, and until now I have been sticking with the 5.0
style templating (even in 5.4 systems) because it is easy and works well. I
thought I'd try the new templating system now (output and unpack tags).
However as I am looking at it, I am wondering why the templating is now done
this way. It seems like [output] and [unpack] are tags that can be used to
solve a problem where order is not letting you get at some information, but
why setup the entire templating system this way?

If my templates did not have any order issues, would it be more efficient to
stick with the older style templating (5.0) ?

I realize this may not be appropriate question for the list, but many do
build off foundation (if not for a jumpstart), so I am sure people would
benefit from a nice explanation of things that could be accomplished with
it.

Mike has a *very* nice article explaining how it all works:
http://www.icdevgroup.org/pipermail/interchange-users/2005-May/043195.html

However I was hoping some users could briefly describe how it helped them
accomplish something in particular. It might spark the imagination of
another developer to more successfully use Interchange, or just make the
"what's possible" click in the mind of newbie's.

I'll admit I can remember a page or two when order defiance would have been
nice, but fail to see how building the entire template this way is
beneficial. I KNOW I am wrong, but I'd like to understand why.

Thanks in advanced for some enlightenment.

Paul



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