Paul, I'm enjoying this discussion. i think it is useful for both of us as well as the perl community at large... so dont think I'm making any personal attacks. The more we compare and contrast, the stronger our respective camps can become.
In TT and Template::Alloy - you can call into perl to manipulate your data - but the language has enough flexibility that you don't have to.
In terms of separation of concerns where do you think data manipulation should be done:
- model
- view
- controller
In Seamstress, the answer is clear and my code backs it up. Data manipulation, in any way shape or form belongs in the MODEL
your comments about sticking template code in the database almost gave me a heart attack..
What you call "flexibility" I call "confusion of concerns
Taking a presentation tool and involving it in data manipulation... it is bound to fall short. At one point, TT was released and didnt even have numeric comparison... essential for data manipulation.