The point of HAML

I get what HAML's about, and that it's better than ERB, but why not go with something completely Ruby along the lines of XML Builder?

Then you get extensionality and composability for free.

If using indents for structure was that important, why not just use Python?

[Genuine question, not a flame.]

For me, it’s because writing markup intended for human beings in a programmatic style doesn’t give me any visual clues as to how it’s going to look. The whitespace is a convenient but only inciental way of achieving that.

Builder is totally fine when I’m outputting formatted data like XML because what little adornment goes into that format isn’t something I need to be conscious of, and in fact, it’s probably simpler if I’m not aware of it at all.

I get what HAML's about, and that it's better than ERB, but why not go with something completely Ruby along the lines of XML Builder?

markaby does that, and there are people who love that too. Each to their own!

Fred