Discuss selection of Template engine used by Open-CMSIS-Pack tools

[jkrech]

In the context of #12 the requirement for a template engine was raised.

Identify available open-source template engines which are suitable for generating

• source modules (C/C++/asm, ...)
• header files (C/C++, ...)
• linker scripts
• other ?

Engines

• Freemarker - e.g. STM32CubeMX, CMSIS-Zone
• handlebars
• other?

Create a list of Pros and Cons, discuss and agree and create ADR

[mdortel-stm]

You can find here a comparison matrix of a log of engines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_template_engines
Even if not strictly true, we can take the first assumption that handlebars is like mustache.

[fred-r]

Maybe we should clarify what the templating engine will address ?
I guess we are talking here about the equivalent of CMSIS-Zone in term of features ?
Or is it more than this ?

[0xc0170]

Maybe we should clarify what the templating engine will address ?

As I read the first comment, source files for a project (not project files like cproject or similar) - a tool would generate these files based on project configuration. Looking at the templates in CMSIS-Zone, confirms this, source files generated - basically config files, linker file or any other source file that can be generated based on project configuration.

What languages are OK to be used - no requirement there? Looking at freemaker it's written in Java. Handlebars in javascript.

[fred-r]

What languages are OK to be used - no requirement there? Looking at freemaker it's written in Java. Handlebars in javascript.

Good point indeed. What is the technology to be used in this project ?

[ReinhardKeil]

"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_template_engines - mustache" seems to lack a evaluation language.
When reviewing the existing FreeMarker templates, i.e. https://github.com/ARM-software/CMSIS-Zone/blob/master/Examples/Musca-S1/ftl/tz_sau_nvic.c.ftl it appears that conditions and assignments are a must have.

Freemarker is a third-party tool and requires a JRE (don't think this is an issue). It is called during the build process to generate script/source files based on templates and a data model (*.fzone file). We just need to ensure that it runs. IMHO the language that it is written in is not important, provided that the build environment can execute it.

[DavidJurajdaNXP]

Alternative engine might be Jinja, it is typically used with python, but there are also implementations for other languages:
https://github.com/pallets/jinja
https://github.com/jinja2cpp/Jinja2Cpp
https://github.com/HubSpot/jinjava

[fred-r]

CMSIS-Zone example for STM32L5 reworked with Handlebars:
https://github.com/fred-r/CMSIS-Zone/tree/main/Examples/STM32L5

[jkrech]

I am closing this issue, as we have concluded to focus on using Handlebars for now.