3.4. HTML::Mason

One of the big drawbacks of HTML::Template is that it forces us, to some degree, to mix program logic and presentation, something that we sought to avoid by using templates. For instance, that last template got a little difficult to follow, with variable and HTML tags crowding up the template and obscuring what was actually going on. What we would prefer, then, is a system that allows us to further abstract out the individual elements of what we expect our templates to do, and this is where HTML::Mason comes in.

As we've mentioned, HTML::Mason is an inside-out templating system. As well as templating, it could also be described as a component abstraction system for building HTML web pages out of smaller, reusable pieces of logic. Here's a brief overview of how to use it, before we go on to implement the same RSS aggregator application.