Re: HTML::Template vs. CGI.pm

[Purdy]

dragonchild made the excellent point (#4), but just to elaborate, separating your design code follows the recognized MVC paradigm (one Google doc that partially explains it), which is an excellent methodology to follow when programming (unless you're doing some simple "Hello World" kinda stuff).

I'll also make another quick point while I got the podium: be careful when turning over your HTML::Template files to DreamWeaver web-monkeys - in my experience, DreamWeaver has a tendency to muck up your files with its notion of correct HTML ... for example, template tags within a string or other tags:

<a href="script.cgi?<!-- TMPL_VAR NAME="foo" ESCAPE=URL -->">Link</a>
<input type="checkbox" name="option" value="test" <!-- TMPL_IF NAME="s
+elected">SELECTED<!-- /TMPL_IF -->>

I forget (or I'm so scarred that it's been purged from my recall at the moment) what they get turned into ... it ain't pretty, though. I haven't taken the chance to sit down and go through DreamWeaver's preferences - I believe there's something in there to turn off it's "corrective" nature, but I always make a backup and then compare the two files after the web-monkey is done.

Peace,

Jason