Re: [Perl-widget-developer] Widget and templates - QED - stringify overloading

[Stephen A. <ste...@of...>]

At 10:10 AM 6/8/2001 -0700, ja...@la... wrote:
>There were a couple of good points about my proposed how to use widgets in
Templating systems. I know the thought of changing a system like Template
Toolkit is unattractive. In the long run I feel a few strategic changes
could make all lives easier.
>
>HOWEVER - GET THIS:
>
>I thought to myself if we do something like:
>  $widget=[ a widget instance ];
>  print $widget;
>
>We get a lovely output like:
>  Widget::HTML::Thinggy=HASH(0x80903040)
>
>Using the overload (perldoc overload) package we can simply overload the
stringify operator to whatever we wish:
>
>Pacakge Widget::HTML::Thinggy;
>
>sub render_html {
>}
>
>use overload '""' => \&render_html; # or *whatever*

Good idea.

>Now print $widget will actually call render_html to create what to print.
Delicious.
>
>I can rip out the funky code I whacked into Template Toolkit and still
just place my widget where I want, calling it by name and seeing its
default rendering (HTML) in all its glory.
>
>We should look at putting this into the Widget::HTML::Base.pm package.
>

Good idea.

>use overload '""' => \&render; # Does this inherit properly? Maybe not.
Might need a bit of fancy footwork for subclasses to Widget::HTML::Base

Give this a try and let us know what works.

Stephen