[web2py] template.render() and whitespace

[Rob]

Hi,

I'm using the standalone template.py to generate non html files and the 
excess whitespace is making this somewhat painful.

For example, my view:
#ifndef __BLAH__
#define __BLAH__
    {{for d in data[:3]:}}
      {{= "hi"}} 
    {{pass}}
#endif

outputs:
#ifndef __BLAH__
#define __BLAH__
    
      hi 
    
      hi 
    
      hi 
    
#endif

I'm sure there are lots of reasons why this can't happen, but I propose 
that render() simply removes lines that contain nothing but whitespace and 
logic. For example, given the same view:
1 #ifndef __BLAH__
2 #define __BLAH__
3     {{for d in data[:3]:}}
4       {{= "hi"}} 
5     {{pass}}
6 #endif 

Line number 3 and 6 contain nothing but template logic and whitespace (with 
excess carriage returns).  Is there a reason why the rendering engine 
couldn't simply remove this whitespace from the output?  IE: if the line 
contains pure logic ({{...}}) and whitespace, just remove it.  If the line 
contains {{=..}} and other whitespace then it stays.

Does this break all sorts of HTML output?

Thanks,
Rob