FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS about Parse::Plain


Q1. Why do you use %% and {{ }} as tag / block delimiters?
A1. These symbols very rarely appear in pairs. More, unlike
HTML-style comments and HTML-style tags they usually not 
hidden by many WYSIWYG editors.


Q2. What if I must use these symbols elsewhere in my template?
A2. You can try this trick:
$t->set_tag('DPERC', '%%');
$t->set_tag('DCURLYL', '{{');
$t->set_tag('DCURLYR', '}}');

If your template is HTML the better idea is to use character entities:
% for %
{ for {
} for }


Q3. On which systems Parse:Plain may be run?
A3. It was tested under FreeBSD, Linux and Windows 2000 with Perl 5.00503,
Perl 5.6 and Perl 5.8.0 but it must run without any problems on any other
system as well. If it won't work on yours one please let me know. Please, note:
the module was never tested with Perl 6!


Q4. Can I somehow use it with Perl 4?
A4. No, because it's object-oriented.


Q5. Is Parse::Plain version 3 compatible with version 2.x
A5. Strictly speaking no. However most templates and code
wouldn't require any changes (or require small). Things
to check are:
 - methods set_tag, get_tag, push_tag, unshift_tag,
block, push_block, unshift_block now return references;
 - methods block, push_block, unshift_block now have
slightly different behavior. In version 2.x it always
affected block source, now it may also affect block results. 
If you need 100% compatibility with version 2.0x take a look
at Parse::Plain version 2.1 which is released specially for
compatibility with older versions but supports many new features
introduced in 3.0. There are no plans for further support of
version 2.x.


Q6. Do you provide support?
A6. No, but feel free to contact me if you have any question. If you've 
found a bug, I'll probably try to fix it ASAP.


Q7. Do you use Parse::Plain in real applications
A7. Yes, I use it on many web sites including but not limited to
http://www.an.kiev.ua/ It's also in heart of WSMS site engine 
(http://www.an.kiev.ua/wsms/).


Q8. Are there any other modules for parsing templates?
A8. Yes, please check out (in alphabetical order):
dTemplate
HCKit::Template
HTML::Template
Template
Text::FastTemplate
Text::MetaText
Text::SimpleTemplate
All packages mentioned above available from http://www.cpan.org/