Thomas Nordlund thomasnordlund

(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.

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	<!doctype html>
	<html ng-app="Demo" ng-controller="AppController">
	<head>
	<meta charset="utf-8" />

	<title>AngularJS Routing</title>

	<style type="text/css">

	a {

	/**
	Code copyright Dustin Diaz and Ross Harmes, Pro JavaScript Design Patterns.
	**/

	// Constructor.
	var Interface = function (name, methods) {
	if (arguments.length != 2) {
	throw new Error("Interface constructor called with " + arguments.length + "arguments, but expected exactly 2.");
	}
	this.name = name;