The classes have been renamed Template and SafeTemplate. Also, a bunch of

open issues have been added.

pep-0292.txt

@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@ Rationale
 
 A Simpler Proposal
 
-    We propose the addition of a new class -- called 'template', which
+    We propose the addition of a new class -- called 'Template', which
     will live in the string module -- derived from the built-in
-    unicode type.  The template class supports new rules for string
+    unicode type.  The Template class supports new rules for string
     substitution; its value contains placeholders, introduced with the
     $ character.  The following rules for $-placeholders apply:
 
@@ -64,39 +64,39 @@ A Simpler Proposal
     If the $ character appears at the end of the line, or is followed
     by any other character than those described above, it is treated
     as if it had been escaped, appearing in the resulting string
-    unchanged.
+    unchanged.  NOTE: see open issues below.
 
     No other characters have special meaning, however it is possible
-    to derive from the template class to define different rules for
+    to derive from the Template class to define different rules for
     the placeholder.  For example, a derived class could allow for
     periods in the placeholder (e.g. to support a kind of dynamic
     namespace and attribute path lookup).
 
-    Once the template has been created, substitutions can be performed
+    Once the Template has been created, substitutions can be performed
     using traditional Python syntax.  For example:
 
-        >>> from string import template
+        >>> from string import Template
         >>> mapping = dict(name='Guido', country='the Netherlands')
-        >>> s = template('${name} was born in ${country}')
+        >>> s = Template('${name} was born in ${country}')
         >>> print s % mapping
         Guido was born in the Netherlands
 
-    Another class is provided which derives from template.  This class
-    is called 'safe_template' and supports rules identical to those
-    above.  The difference between template instances and
-    safe_template instances is that if a placeholder is missing from
+    Another class is provided which derives from Template.  This class
+    is called 'SafeTemplate' and supports rules identical to those
+    above.  The difference between Template instances and SafeTemplate
+    instances is that in SafeTemplate if a placeholder is missing from
     the interpolation mapping, no KeyError is raised.  Instead, the
     original placeholder is included in the result string unchanged.
     For example:
 
-        >>> from string import template, safe_template
+        >>> from string import Template, SafeTemplate
         >>> mapping = dict(name='Guido', country='the Netherlands')
-        >>> s = template('$who was born in $country')
+        >>> s = Template('$who was born in $country')
         >>> print s % mapping
         Traceback (most recent call last):
           [...traceback omitted...]
         KeyError: u'who'
-        >>> s = safe_template('$who was born in $country')
+        >>> s = SafeTemplate('$who was born in $country')
         >>> print s % mapping
         $who was born in the Netherlands
 
@@ -135,12 +135,12 @@ Comparison to PEP 215
     quite complex, and make it more difficult to see the substitution
     placeholder in the original $-string.
 
-    The interesting thing is that the template class defined in this
+    The interesting thing is that the Template class defined in this
     PEP has nothing to say about the values that are substituted for
     the placeholders.  Thus, with a little extra work, it's possible
     to support PEP 215's functionality using existing Python syntax.
 
-    For example, one could define subclasses of template and dict that
+    For example, one could define subclasses of Template and dict that
     allowed for a more complex placeholder syntax and a mapping that
     evaluated those placeholders.
 
@@ -150,17 +150,69 @@ Internationalization
     The implementation supports internationalization magic by keeping
     the original string value intact.  In fact, all the work of the
     special substitution rules are implemented by overriding the
-    __mod__() operator.  However the string value of a template (or
-    safe_template) is the string that was passed to its constructor.
+    __mod__() operator.  However the string value of a Template (or
+    SafeTemplate) is the string that was passed to its constructor.
 
     This approach allows a gettext-based internationalized program to
-    use the template instance as a lookup into the catalog; in fact
-    gettext doesn't care that the catalog key is a template.  Because
-    the value of the template is the original $-string, translators
+    use the Template instance as a lookup into the catalog; in fact
+    gettext doesn't care that the catalog key is a Template.  Because
+    the value of the Template is the original $-string, translators
     also never need to use %-strings.  The right thing will happen at
     run-time.
 
 
+Open Issues
+
+    - Should the Template and SafeTemplate classes convert mapping
+      values to strings (or unicodes)?  I.e. what should this code do:
+
+      >>> from string import Template
+      >>> Template('The cost was $amount euros') % {'amount': 7}
+
+      Should this raise an exception such as TypeError, or should this
+      return the string 'The cose was 7 euros'?
+
+      PEP author preference: no automatic stringification.
+
+    - The pattern for placeholders in the Template and SafeTemplate
+      classes matches Python identifiers.  Some people want to match
+      Python attribute paths, e.g. "$os.path.sep".  This can be useful
+      in some applications, however note that it is up to the
+      interpolation mapping to provide namespace lookup for the
+      attribute paths.
+
+      Should we include AttributeTemplate and SafeAttributeTemplate in
+      the standard library?  What about more complex patterns such as
+      Python expressions?
+
+      PEP author preference: No, we don't include them for now.  Such
+      classes are easily derived, and besides, we're not proposing to
+      include any interpolation mappings, and without such a
+      specialized mapping, a pattern matching attribute paths or
+      expressions aren't useful.
+
+    - Where does the Template and SafeTemplate classes live?  Some
+      people have suggested creating a stringtools or stringlib module
+      to house these two classes.  The PEP author has proposed a
+      re-organization of the existing string module, turning it into a
+      string package.
+
+      PEP author preference: There seems little consensus around
+      either suggestion, and since the classes are just a few lines of
+      Python, I propose no string module re-organization, but to add
+      these two classes to string.py.
+
+    - Should the $-placeholder rules be more strict?  Specifically,
+      objections have been raised about 'magically' escaping $'s at
+      the end of strings, or in strings like '$100'.  The suggestion
+      was that we add another matching group which matches bare $'s,
+      raising a ValueError if we find such a match.
+
+      PEP author preference: This sounds fine to me, although because
+      the pattern is part of the public interface for the class, we
+      will have to document that 4 groups are expected instead of 3.
+
+
 References
 
     [1] String Formatting Operations