Templates are used to generate all kinds of text, including computer
code. The last decade, the use of templates gained a lot of popularity
due to the increase of dynamic web applications. Templates are a tool
for programmers, and implementations of template engines are most times
based on practical experience rather than based on a theoretical
background.
This book reveals the mathematical background of templates and shows
interesting findings for improving the practical use of templates.
First, a framework to determine the necessary computational power for
the template metalanguage is presented. The template metalanguage does
not need to be Turing-complete to be useful. A non-Turing-complete
metalanguage enforces separation of concerns between the view and model.
Second, syntactical correctness of all languages of the templates and
generated code is ensured. This includes the syntactical correctness of
the template metalanguage and the output language. Third, case studies
show that the achieved goals are applicable in practice. It is even
shown that syntactical correctness helps to prevent cross-site scripting
attacks in web applications.
The target audience of this book is twofold. The first group exists of
researcher interested in the mathematical background of templates. The
second group exists of users of templates. This includes designers of
template engines on one side and programmers and web designers using
templates on the other side
