
README for the Perl Module CGI::FastTemplate - 1.02

	Copyright (c) 1998 Jason Moore <jmoore@sober.com>.  All rights
	reserved.

	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
	modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
	Artistic License for more details.


DESCRIPTION
-----------

CGI::FastTemplate manages templates and parses templates replacing
variable names with values.  It was designed for mid to large scale web
applications (CGI, mod_perl) where there are great benefits to separating
the logic of an application from the specific implementation details.

For example using FastTemplate it is possible to:

	- build multilingual applications

	- allow users to select high-bandwidth or text-only versions of
	an application

	- let graphic designers work on templates independantly of
	the programmers

	- share the responsibility of interface design

The design goals of CGI::FastTemplate were:

Speed

	FastTemplate doesn't use eval, and parses with a single
	regular expression.  It just does simple variable interpolation
	(i.e. there is no logic that you can add to templates - you keep
	the logic in the code).  That's why it's has 'Fast' in it's name!

Efficiency

	FastTemplate functions accept and return references whenever
	possible, which saves needless copying of arguments (hashes,
	scalars, etc).

Flexibility

	The API is robust and flexible, and allows you to build very
	complex HTML documents/interfaces.  It is also completely written 
	in perl and works on Unix and NT.  You could use it to build any type
	of ascii based document (e.g. postscript, xml, email) not just HTML.

For more information see the pod documentation included in the file
'FastTemplate.pm'.


INSTALLATION
------------

To install, unzip and untar the archive. In the directory created type:

	perl Makefile.PL
	make
	make install

Note: If this does not work, you can always just copy the file
'FastTemplate.pm' to the 'CGI' directory in your perl distribution.

If you want to test out the module without installing it, you can add
the following to your code:

	BEGIN
	{
		unshift(@INC, "/wherever/you/put/CGI/FastTemplate.pm");
	}

	use CGI::FastTemplate;


DOCUMENTATION
-------------

Documentation is included in the module in pod format.  Once
CGI::FastTemplate has been installed type:

	perldoc CGI::FastTemplate

or if is uninstalled:

	perldoc ./FastTemplate.pm

For more information on perldoc type 'perldoc perldoc'.


AUTHOR
------

Jason Moore <jmoore@sober.com>

Feel free to send along any comments, suggestions, or bug reports.


CHANGES
-------

1.02  Tue Sep 22 08:57:29 EDT 1998

	- fixed bug that allowed first character after '$' to be a digit.
	Variables are now: $[A-Z][A-Z0-9_]+
	Thanks to: Benjamin Low <b.d.low@unsw.edu.au>
	
	- add strict() no_strict() which turns on/off complaints to STDERR
	when a variable is found but no value found for it.


1.01  Tue Sep 15 10:01:44 EDT 1998

	- added clear(SCALAR) which clears the scalar from the parsed
	hash. i.e. 
		$tpl->clear("FOO");	## equivalent to:
		$tpl->assign(FOO=>"");
	
	- made $v='' not undef in parse() to avoid spurious warnings
	Thanks to: Benjamin Low <b.d.low@unsw.edu.au>

	- added method define_nofile() (alias: define_raw) which allows
	you to define a template without having to create a separate file
	for your template.

1.00  Thu Aug 20 11:59:22 1998
	- original version; created by h2xs 1.18
	- first public release (rewrite)

