Unexpected whitespace/newline insertion before elements with tal:repeat

[Eleanor Berger]

Contrary to the documentation, and to the expectation of users, elements with tal:repeat render with a newline and whitespace if they are the first non-whitespace test on their line in the template.

This is is not only confusing, but also makes it difficult to implement loops where there shouldn't be any whitespace between the repeated elements.

See also a discussion of the problem here: http://mail.zope.org/pipermail/zpt/2002-August/003552.html

[Fred Drake (fdrake)]

If I recall correctly, this was done so that generated HTML "looked
right" when viewed as source. I don't know the source of this
requirement.

[Tim Penhey (thumper)]

"looking right" is obviously a very subjective idea. I'm currently wrestling with TAL and repeat in order to not get extra whitespace (before a comma in the output).

[Fred Drake (fdrake)]

On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 1:12 PM, Tim Penhey <email address hidden> wrote:
> "looking right" is obviously a very subjective idea. I'm currently
> wrestling with TAL and repeat in order to not get extra whitespace
> (before a comma in the output).

I don't disagree; the decision wasn't mine.

  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr. <fdrake at gmail.com>
"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written." --Henry Miller

[Anthony Gerrard (anthonygerrard+launchpad-net)]

I just raised a chameleon issue asking for the same thing

https://github.com/malthe/chameleon/issues/110

[Cong Do (codo)]

I can't believe that i have to edit the library and it's my first day working with zope.
I mean at least give some option to turn off the whitespace and newline.

The impact of this bugs effect every page that use css display:inline and display:inline-block. Since the newline with display on the browser as a space.

Here is a hack for anyone having issue and zope are unwilling to help.
Quick work around is to edit program.py
change
            self._whitespace = "" + "" * len(self._last.rsplit('\n', 1)[-1])
to
            self._whitespace = ""

To add a tal command to prevent the white space in program.py
find
        # Remember whitespace for item repetition
        if self._last is not None:
            self._whitespace = "\n" + " " * len(self._last.rsplit('\n', 1)[-1])

and replace with
        try:
            whitespace = ns[TAL,'whitespace'].lower() != "false"
        except KeyError:
            whitespace = True

        # Remember whitespace for item repetition
        if self._last is not None and whitespace:
            self._whitespace = "\n" + " " * len(self._last.rsplit('\n', 1)[-1])
        else:
            self._whitespace = ""

and modified WHITELIST in tal.py to include "whitespace"

[Tres Seaver (tseaver)]

If you'd like to see this change land, please:

- Fork the zope.tal repository on Github: https://github.com/zopefoundation/zope.tal

- Clone your fork, and apply your changes there.

- Add tests which exercise the new behavior.

- Add a CHANGES.txt entry for the change.

- Push your changes back to Git

- Submit a pull request: I will review it.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

The zope.tal project on Launchpad has been archived at the request of the Zope developers (see https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/683589 and https://answers.launchpad.net/launchpad/+question/685285). If this bug is still relevant, please refile it at https://github.com/zopefoundation/zope.tal.