Navigation: Templates > Template Language Reference > Introduction >====== Pre-Processing and Source Code Generation ====== | |
Before allowing you to create an application using the templates, the Application Generator pre-processes the template code (.TPL and .TPW) files. The Application Generator verifies the registry is up to date by testing the time stamps and file sizes of all the template source code files.
The Application Generator utilizes the templates as stored in binary form in the registry file, as it gathers customizations from the developer with the prompts and dialogs available through the Procedure Properties dialog. The Application Generator stores the template starting point for each procedure and the customization from the programmer in the .APP file.
At source code generation time, the Application Generator processes the application's procedures as stored in the .APP file against the template, a second time. Some of the more important steps it uses to produce the source code are:
·It executes the template language control statements to process the template and the procedure's customizations in the correct order.
·It resolves the template symbolsboth built-in and user-defined.
·It creates the source code files and writes the source code as generated by the template, line by line, including the previously evaluated symbols.
·It evaluates embed points and writes the source code, as embedded by the developer and stored in the .APP file, in the correct location within the generated source code.