-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Text::Merge
Version 0.31
last revised: May 9th, 2000 
 
Copyright (c) 1997-2000 by Steven D. Harris. All rights reserved.  This 
program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under 
the same terms as Perl itself.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS
--------

This package contains the following files which should share the same version 
number:

	Text/Merge.pm        -  basic text/data merge package
	Text/Merge/Lists.pm  -  extension to support display of list references

There are HTML formatted manuals in the docs/ directory of the archive if
you want to extract just those to read them.



DESCRIPTION
-----------
 
The Text::Merge module provides a set of methods for merging text display
templates with data sets.  It is extended to include support for
list of items of various types, displayed individually in context.

The interface is designed to be as easy to use as possible while providing
extensibility into various contexts and applications on a sophisticated
level.  You can begin by using the basic template markup and work your
way to conditionals.  Programmers can master the template processing
methods in minutes.

This set of functions has been very useful to me in scores of various 
contexts in my CGI programs and installers.  I am publishing them in 
the hope that they may benefit others as well, and in the hopes that 
I can get enough feedback to continue to improve them.



PREREQUISITES
-------------
 
Before you can build the Text::Merge:: packages you need to have the following
installed on your system:

    * Perl 5.004 or better



BUILDING AND INSTALLING THE MODULES
-----------------------------------
 
Assuming you have met all the prerequisites, building the modules
should be relatively straightforward.

The modules can now be built and installed using this sequence of commands:
 
    perl Makefile.PL
    make
    make test
    make install


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

SPECIAL DEVELOPMENT NOTE
========================

This module is now considered sufficiently stable to move beyond the 
prototype stage.  Significant effort is now being put into moving to
a parsed (and cached) template model designed for higher efficiency 
and multiple template publishing.  Analysis shows potential improvements
in speed directly proportional to the amount of data processed in some 
cases.  We will ideally be moving from the REGEX processing now in use 
to a C-code parsed template.

All releases under the above model will bear version 1.x.  This will 
still allow maintenance releases to the current BETA version.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you would like to assist in development of this module or wish to contact
the author, the e-mail is <perl@nullspace.com>.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

--SDH