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authorDaniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>2024-04-28 16:06:13 +0000
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+Frequently Asked Questions
+==========================
+
+
+Why is it called Jinja?
+-----------------------
+
+"Jinja" is a Japanese `Shinto shrine`_, or temple, and temple and
+template share a similar English pronunciation. It is not named after
+the `city in Uganda`_.
+
+.. _Shinto shrine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto_shrine
+.. _city in Uganda: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinja%2C_Uganda
+
+
+How fast is Jinja?
+------------------
+
+Jinja is relatively fast among template engines because it compiles and
+caches template code to Python code, so that the template does not need
+to be parsed and interpreted each time. Rendering a template becomes as
+close to executing a Python function as possible.
+
+Jinja also makes extensive use of caching. Templates are cached by name
+after loading, so future uses of the template avoid loading. The
+template loading itself uses a bytecode cache to avoid repeated
+compiling. The caches can be external to persist across restarts.
+Templates can also be precompiled and loaded as fast Python imports.
+
+We dislike benchmarks because they don't reflect real use. Performance
+depends on many factors. Different engines have different default
+configurations and tradeoffs that make it unclear how to set up a useful
+comparison. Often, database access, API calls, and data processing have
+a much larger effect on performance than the template engine.
+
+
+Isn't it a bad idea to put logic in templates?
+----------------------------------------------
+
+Without a doubt you should try to remove as much logic from templates as
+possible. With less logic, the template is easier to understand, has
+fewer potential side effects, and is faster to compile and render. But a
+template without any logic means processing must be done in code before
+rendering. A template engine that does that is shipped with Python,
+called :class:`string.Template`, and while it's definitely fast it's not
+convenient.
+
+Jinja's features such as blocks, statements, filters, and function calls
+make it much easier to write expressive templates, with very few
+restrictions. Jinja doesn't allow arbitrary Python code in templates, or
+every feature available in the Python language. This keeps the engine
+easier to maintain, and keeps templates more readable.
+
+Some amount of logic is required in templates to keep everyone happy.
+Too much logic in the template can make it complex to reason about and
+maintain. It's up to you to decide how your application will work and
+balance how much logic you want to put in the template.
+
+
+Why is HTML escaping not the default?
+-------------------------------------
+
+Jinja provides a feature that can be enabled to escape HTML syntax in
+rendered templates. However, it is disabled by default.
+
+Jinja is a general purpose template engine, it is not only used for HTML
+documents. You can generate plain text, LaTeX, emails, CSS, JavaScript,
+configuration files, etc. HTML escaping wouldn't make sense for any of
+these document types.
+
+While automatic escaping means that you are less likely have an XSS
+problem, it also requires significant extra processing during compiling
+and rendering, which can reduce performance. Jinja uses MarkupSafe for
+escaping, which provides optimized C code for speed, but it still
+introduces overhead to track escaping across methods and formatting.