U++

Several times lately, I found myself in a situation when I needed to render similar code in witz template multiple times, but with slightly different visuals or content. To do it easily, I wrote myself this little witz function:

Value Render(const Vector<Value>& arg, const Renderer *r) {
    if (arg.GetCount() < 1)
        return "";
    // create new Renderer, as we can not modify the one currently used
    Renderer rr;
    // copy variables so they are avalable in the rendered template too
    for(int i = 1; i < r->Variables().GetCount(); i++) {
        rr(r->Variables().GetKey(i), r->Variables()[i]);
    }
    // add arguments as variables
    for(int i = 1; i < arg.GetCount(); i++) {
        rr("_"+IntStr(i), arg[i]);
    }
    // render the template passed in first argument
    return rr.Render(AsString(arg[0]));
}

INITBLOCK {
    Compiler::Register("render", Render);
};

The usage is simple, I just have a template which uses $_1, $_2, etc. for the variable arguments and in the main template I call it as a function, e.g. $render("MyApp/mytable.witz", "MyHeader", $CONF.TABLE1_BGCOLOR, $TABLE1_CONTENT).

I know this can probably be done using includes and defines in witz, but this way it feels much more natural and also the syntax is much simpler to write. Also, the function might be simpler and more efficient if implemented directly in Skylark, it might be possible to avoid creating brand new renderer or at least copy the variables more efficiently.

If you think this might be of interest to other people, you can add it to the Skylark/stdlib.icpp. If you think it's stupid idea, just close this issue :)