NAME
    Text::MicroMason::Docs::ReadMe - About the MicroMason Distribution

MOTIVATION
    The HTML::Mason module provides a useful syntax for dynamic template
    interpretation (sometimes called embedded scripting): plain text (or
    HTML) containing occasional chunks of Perl code whose results are
    interpolated into the text when the template is "executed."

    However, HTML::Mason also provides a full-featured web application
    framework with numerous other functions, and there are times in which
    I'd like to use the templating capability without configuring a full
    Mason installation.

    Thus, the Text::MicroMason module was born: it supports the core aspects
    of the HTML::Mason syntax ("<%...%>" expressions, "%...\n" lines and
    "<%perl>...</%perl>" blocks, "<& file &>" includes, "%ARGS" and
    "$_out->()"), and omits the features that are web specific (like
    autohandlers) or are less widely used (like "<%method>" blocks).

    You may well be thinking "yet another dynamic templating module?
    Sheesh!" And you'd have a good point. There certainly are a wide variety
    of templating toolkits on CPAN already. (For a brief list see
    Text::MicroMason::Docs::Related.)

    Nonetheless, I think this module occupies a useful niche: it provides a
    reasonable subset of HTML::Mason syntax in a very light-weight fashion.
    In comparison to the other modules listed, MicroMason aims to be fairly
    lightweight, using one eval per parse, converting the template to a
    compiled subroutine reference, and requiring less than five hundred
    lines of Perl code.

    Although it notoriously difficult to fairly benchmark competing template
    frameworks, at least some anecdotal evidence indicates that this module
    performs reasonably well. http://use.perl.org/~hctif/journal/25211
    http://www.gtchat.de/templateengines/templateengines_en.html

    It is also highly modular, allowing users to select and enable the
    combination of features they desire. Automatic caching, safe
    compartments, post-processing and other features are available as mixin
    classes that are loaded on demand.

    I've recently added mixin classes that emulate the template syntax used
    by Apache::ASP, Embperl, HTML::Template, PLP, Text::Template, and
    Text::QuickTemplate.

DISTRIBUTION STATUS
    This is version 1.992_01 of Text::MicroMason.

    This is a BETA version on a development track for a 2.0 release.

    This module has been available on CPAN for over four years.

    If you encounter any problems, please inform the current maintainer and
    I'll endeavor to patch them promptly.

    This module's CPAN registration should read:

      Name            DSLIP  Description
      --------------  -----  ---------------------------------------------
      Text::          Group 11: Text Processing
      ::MicroMason    Rdpfp  Simplified HTML::Mason Templating

    This release has been tested succesfully on the following platforms:

      5.6.1 on darwin
      5.8.6 on darwin-thread-multi-2level
      5.8.8 and 5.10 on FreeBSD 6.1
      5.8.3 on FreeBSD 4.8

    Earlier releases have also tested OK on a wide variety of platforms.

    You may review the current test results from CPAN-Testers:

      http://testers.cpan.org/show/Text-MicroMason.html

PREREQUISITES
    This module should work with any version of Perl 5 on any standard
    platform.

    There is one pre-requisite module not included with the core
    distribution which must be installed from CPAN: Class::MixinFactory.

    If you want to use the Text::Template compatibility mode, you will also
    need to install Text::Balanced.

INSTALLATION
    You should be able to install this module using the CPAN shell
    interface:

      perl -MCPAN -e 'install Text::MicroMason'

    Alternately, you may retrieve this package from CPAN
    ("http://search.cpan.org/~ferrency/").

    After downloading the distribution, follow the normal procedure to
    unpack and install it, using the commands shown below or their local
    equivalents on your system:

      tar xzf Text-MicroMason-*.tar.gz
      cd Text-MicroMason-*
      perl Makefile.PL
      make test && sudo make install

SUPPORT
    If you have questions or feedback about this module, please feel free to
    contact the maintainer or original author at the e-mail address listed
    below. Although there is no formal support program, I do attempt to
    answer email promptly.

    I would be particularly interested in any suggestions towards improving
    the documentation, correcting any Perl-version or platform dependencies,
    as well as general feedback and suggested additions.

    Bug reports that contain a failing test case are greatly appreciated,
    and suggested patches will be promptly considered for inclusion in
    future releases.

    You can report bugs via the CPAN web tracking system, or send mail to
    "bug-Text-MicroMason#rt.cpan.org", replacing "#" with "@".

      http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/Bugs.html?Dist=Text-MicroMason

COMMUNITY
    If you've found this module useful or have feedback about your
    experience with it, consider sharing your opinion with other Perl users
    by posting your comment to CPAN's ratings system.

      http://cpanratings.perl.org/rate/?distribution=Text-MicroMason

    For more general discussion, you may wish to post a message on the
    CPAN::Forum, on PerlMonks, or on the comp.lang.perl.modules newsgroup.
    These are not all monitored by the current maintainer, so if you want a
    response, please contact me directly.

      http://www.cpanforum.com/dist/Text-MicroMason
      http://perlmonks.org/?node=Seekers%20of%20Perl%20Wisdom
      http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.perl.modules

THANKS
    My sincere thanks to the following people for their feedback and
    contributions:

      Pascal Barbedor
      Mark Hampton
      Philip King
      Daniel J. Wright
      William Kern
      Tommi Maekitalo
      Alan Ferrency
      Jonas Alves
      Alexander
      Matthew Simon Cavalletto

SOURCE MATERIAL
    Portions based on HTML::Mason by Jonathan Swartz.

    Portions based on Embperl by Gerald Richter.

    Portions based on HTML::Template by Sam Tregar.

    Portions based on PLP by Juerd Waalboer.

    Portions based on Text::Template by Mark Jason Dominus.

    Portions based on Text::QuickTemplate by Eric J. Roode.

AUTHOR
    Developed by Matthew Simon Cavalletto at Evolution Softworks. You may
    contact the author directly at "evo#cpan.org" or
    "simonm#cavalletto.org", replacing "#" with "@".

    Currently maintained by Alan Ferrency <ferrency#cpan.org> at pair
    Networks, Inc.

LICENSE
    Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Matthew Simon Cavalletto.

    Portions copyright 2001 Evolution Online Systems, Inc.

    You may use, modify, and distribute this software under the same terms
    as Perl.

