Inserting StringBuilder values

[michallepicki]

Currently the {{ name }} syntax can be used to insert String values into the template. To insert StringBuilder values, one must issue unnecessary string_builder.to_string calls.

I think it could be useful to allow inserting StringBuilder values (probably through new syntax?). This would translate to string_builder.append_builder calls instead of string_builder.append. Could be useful especially when composing multiple templates.

[michaeljones]

Good point. Thanks for raising it. How do you think we could go about it? I guess some new syntax. Or we could use a with statement at the top to tell the system that something is a StringBuilder rather than a String.

We could use {[ variable ]} as the syntax as conceptually the StringBuilder is sort of a list of strings internally (I guess) so it has echoes of that.

Otherwise maybe:

• {{b:name}} or {{builder:name}} to indicate a builder.
• {{ *name }} to kind of "splat" the builder into the string.
• {{ ...name }} for similar reasons.
• [[ name ]] Similar to the top suggestion but embracing the double-ness.
• {b name d} for b for builder & d for symmetry 🙈

Any thoughts or preferences? Probably {[ name ]} or [[ name ]] for me. Or {{ ...name }}

[michallepicki]

Or we could use a with statement at the top to tell the system that something is a StringBuilder rather than a String.

I think this might be a bit limiting, e.g. I think it would be great to be able to call

{% for user in users %}
    [[ user_template.render_builder(user) ]]
{% endfor %}

I like [[ ]] personally :)

edit: also

{b name d} for b for builder & d for symmetry 🙈

😆