> Just as an aside, I have now also learned that emacs also includes > skeleton.el, which is yet a third template expansion library. Sigh.
also why we have yasnippets (yet another snippet for emacs). If lisp languages have a flaw, this is probably it - often, people find it easier to re-write functionality in a new library rather than spending time learning the API and underlying philosophy/mindset of a 3rp party. Understandable as we all prefer coding to reading manuals and APIs! I guess this is also one of the motivations to not implement yet another template system if it can be avoided. I have used both tempo and skeleton mode in the past. From memory, skeleton's strength was with fairly static templates e.g. copyright notice (though there is a mode for that as well!). Tempo was the one I used most often, but have to say, writing tempo templates is a bit of a pain and they are awfully ugly (at least mine were!). These days, I seem to be using yasnippets most of the time. It isn't because it is the best template solution, but rather it is because it seems to be incorporated into many other modes I use and I can often just install a package which has 80% of the snippets I need for a specific mode. I suspect it is a bit of a VHS v Betamax situation - yasnippets may not be the best solution, but it seems to have grabbed largest market share! Tim -- Tim Cross
