v0.1.0

Run bundle add brb-templates to start playing with this, then call BRB.enable in an initializer.

BRB is backslashed Ruby, a template system that lets you be-right-back to ERB.

BRB aims to be a simpler syntax, but still a superset of ERB, that's aware of the context we're in: HTML.

We're swapping the usual <% %>, <%= %>, and <%# %> for , = and # — these are also self-terminating expressions.

So this ERB:

<%# Some comment %>
<% posts.each do |post| %>
  <h1><%= post.title %></h1>
<% end %>

Can be this in BRB:

\# Some comment
\posts.each do |post|
  <h1>\= post.title</h1>
\end

Note: you can also do \ posts.each and \ end, it just feels a little nicer to nestle once you've written a bit.

We recognize lines starting with \ or # as pure Ruby ones so we terminate on \n and convert to <% %>.
Same goes for = except we also terminate on </, and then convert to <%= %>.

Use the sigil \p(post.title) for multiple statements on the same line or to otherwise disambiguate statements.

Preprocessing sigils

BRB also includes preprocessing sigils. Sigils make common HTML output actions easier to write.

At template compile time the sigils are replaced with the equivalent ERB:

\p(post.options) -> <%= post.options %>
\id(post) -> id="<%= dom_id(post) %>"
\class(active: post.active?) -> class="<%= class_names(active: post.active?) %>"
\attributes(post.options) -> <%= tag.attributes(post.options) %>
\data(controller: :list) -> <%= tag.data(controller: :list) %>
\aria(describedby: :post_1) -> <%= tag.aria(describedby: :post_1) %>
\lorem -> Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet…

There's also a t sigil, but it's got a little extra too:

\t.message -> <%= t ".message" %>
\t(fully.qualified.message) -> <%= t "fully.qualified.message" %>
\t(Some bare words) -> <%= t "Some bare words" %> # Assumes we're using a gettext I18n backend, coming later!

Embed ViewComponents with their templates

I haven't figured this out, but I'm trying to explore a way to embed a component
in its template. Using ~~~ to separate the frontmatter, a pure Ruby chunk where the component code goes, from the rest of the template file like this:

# app/views/message_component.html.erb
class MessageComponent < ViewComponent::Base
  def initialize(name:) = @name = name
end
~~~

<h1>\= @name</h1>

I'm exploring a backmatter version where you can write pure Ruby below the template code:

<h1>\= name</h1>

~~~
# Useful with Nice Partials
partial.helpers do
  # …
end

I'm still trying to figure out what Zeitwerk overrides are needed to make these work.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/kaspth/brb/commits/v0.1.0