Darcy Murphy mrDarcyMurphy

(tl;dr DOM builders like [domo][domo] trump HTML templates on the client.)

Like all web developers, I've used a lot of template engines. Like most, I've also written a few of them, some of which even [fit in a tweet][140].

The first open-source code I ever wrote was also one of the the first template engines for node.js, [a port][node-tmpl] of the mother of all JavaScript template engines, [John Resig][jresig]'s [micro-templates][tmpl]. Of course, these days you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a template engine; one in eight packages on npm ([2,220][npm templates] of 16,226 as of 10/19) involve templates.

John's implementation has since evolved and [lives on in Underscore.js][underscore], which means it's the default choice for templating in Backbone.js. And for a while, it's all I would ever use when building a client-side app.

But I can't really see the value in client-side HTML templates anymore.

	DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE
	Version 2, December 2004

	Copyright (C) 2011 YOUR_NAME_HERE <YOUR_URL_HERE>

	Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim or modified
	copies of this license document, and changing it is allowed as long
	as the name is changed.

	DO WHAT THE FUCK YOU WANT TO PUBLIC LICENSE

	<!doctype html>

	<html>
	<head>
	<!-- Encoding -->
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

	<!-- Always force latest IE rendering engine (even in intranet) & Chrome Frame -->
	<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge,chrome=1"></meta>

	<!doctype html>
	<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<title>Grid test</title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/example.css">
	</head>

	<body>

	<div id="wrapper">

	var parser = document.createElement('a');
	parser.href = "http://example.com:3000/pathname/?search=test#hash";

	parser.protocol; // => "http:"
	parser.hostname; // => "example.com"
	parser.port; // => "3000"
	parser.pathname; // => "/pathname/"
	parser.search; // => "?search=test"
	parser.hash; // => "#hash"
	parser.host; // => "example.com:3000"

	# Font Squirrel Font-face Generator Configuration File
	# Upload this file to the generator to recreate the settings
	# you used to create these fonts.

	{"mode":"expert","formats":["ttf","woff","eot","svg"],"tt_instructor":"default","options_subset":"advanced","subset_custom":"","subset_custom_range":"f000-f073,f200-f273","filename_suffix":"-webfont","emsquare":"2048","spacing_adjustment":"0","rememberme":"Y"}

	// Short module explanation // Something to gather my thoughts
	// // I think this looks cool.
	//
	module.exports = the_exported_function // Modules are a function. Always.
	//
	module.exports.extra = extra // Additional API entry points if
	module.exports.other = other // desired.
	//
	var util = require('util') // Other packages from npm or core
	var assert = require('assert') // No comma-first due to lots of

	angular.module('myApp',
	['ngRoute', 'myApp.services', 'myApp.directives']
	)
	.config(function(AWSServiceProvider) {
	AWSServiceProvider.setArn('arn:aws:iam::<ACCOUNT_ID>:role/google-web-role');
	})
	.config(function(StripeServiceProvider) {
	StripeServiceProvider.setPublishableKey('pk_test_YOURKEY');
	})
	.config(function($routeProvider) {

	/**
	* POST to create a new user.
	*/

	exports.create = function *(){
	var body = yield parse(this);

	// password
	var pass = body.password;
	assert(pass, 400, 'password is required');

	<!DOCTYPE html>
	<html>
	<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8">
	<title></title>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="../libs/mocha.css" type="text/css" media="screen" title="no title" charset="utf-8">
	</head>
	<body>
	<div id="mocha"></div>
	<script src="../libs/mocha.js" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script>