I think the biggest insight I attempt to inject into people is the component template: It's easy to think about it the way a JSP operates: working character-by-character. But for Tapestry, the template is actually a blueprint for building a structure in memory, and that structure is a program for generating a server-side DOM, and only at the end is that DOM emitted character-by-character.
"The string is a stark data structure and everywhere it is passed there is much duplication of process. It is a perfect vehicle for hiding information. -- Alan Perlis I interpret this as "strings are bad", they hide information, or make it more difficult to manipulate. Treating the template as a structure of objects lets Tapestry do things implicitly that are complex in other environments. On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 9:23 AM, Pierce T. Wetter III <pie...@twinforces.com> wrote: > > I'm job hunting right now which means I sometimes have to explain why I > chose Tapestry for a web application platform. ( > http://www.linkedin.com/in/pwetter if your company needs a new Director of > Web Development ). > I had an insight yesterday that I thought I would share. Tapestry is a > compiler. > That is, Tapestry considers your .tml files and your .java files as just a > starting point. From that starting point it builds data structures, new > classes, bytecodes and a host of other cool stuff behind the scenes. That's > one of the reasons its so fast and efficient as an application framework > while running. Unlike a lot of other frameworks that are essentially running > as interpreters, Tapestry runs as compiled code. > The key insight here is something I've known about T5 for a while: Your > .java files and .tml files are just the starting point; they're essentially > declarations that are re-interpreted by T5 to produce a lot of stuff behind > the scenes. You may think that you have Component.java, which declares a > class called Component with one or 2 methods, but by the time Tapestry is > finished with it numerous additional methods and instance variables have > been added, certain things in your class have been rewired, all kinds of > cool stuff. Just as a few lines of declaration code imply a whole bunch of > work by the java compiler behind the scenes, so does a few lines of Tapestry > code imply a whole bunch of work by the "Tapestry compiler". > I hope this insight helps people. > Pierce > -- Howard M. Lewis Ship Creator of Apache Tapestry The source for Tapestry training, mentoring and support. Contact me to learn how I can get you up and productive in Tapestry fast! (971) 678-5210 http://howardlewisship.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@tapestry.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@tapestry.apache.org
