[Zope3-dev] Inline code

Tue Feb 10 10:27:37 EST 2004

On Mon, 9 Feb 2004, Shane Hathaway wrote:

> Further, one way to make inline code portable is to treat inline code as a
> module, rather than as a collection of anonymous code blocks.  For
> example:
> 
> <html>
> <head><title>Shane's Example</title>
> <script type="text/server-python">
> import time
> def showtime():
>     return time.asctime()
> </script>
> </head>
> <body>
> Date and time: <span tal:content="code/showtime">(time)</span>.
> </body>
> </html>

I'm surprised I received no response on this.  I'll help you guys start
debating. :-)

Pros:

- You can write code inline.  It would replace the need for complex
expressions.

- Unlike the current script tag, moving the inline code to a separate
module is always straightforward.  Once it's in a separate module, you get
all the manageability of Python modules.

- Unlike the current script tag, we don't have to manipulate print
statements.  In fact, for the whole story to work, we might not allow
print statements (except perhaps as a debugging tool.)

Cons:

- It's not like Javascript; there is no "document.write()" equivalent.  
It's a lot more like CSS, since CSS styles apply to the whole document 
regardless of what part of the document defines them.

Hmm, I can't think of any more cons. :-)  This seems like a big win 
overall.  Maybe we could try this in Zope 2 first.

Shane