templatesare

Templatesare is a term used in discussions of templating systems to describe a class of patterns in which templates themselves are treated as reusable, parametric building blocks that can produce other templates. In this view, a template is not merely a static string with placeholders; it can be a first-class object that is parameterized by data, configuration, or even other templates. The result is meta-templating.

Core ideas include higher-order templates, template factories, and composable wrappers. A higher-order template accepts one or more template inputs and returns a new template that can be instantiated with specific content. A template factory uses parameters to generate specialized templates at runtime or compile time. Composition patterns enable layouts, themes, and content blocks to be combined in flexible ways while preserving consistency.

Common applications are in code generation, documentation pipelines, and dynamic content rendering. For example, a base content template can be wrapped by a layout template to create a page, while a second wrapper adds navigation or theming. A higher-order template might produce several variants of a page template for different devices or locales by varying wrappers and content blocks.

Challenges include increased complexity, potential difficulty for readers to reason about generated templates, and tooling requirements for type-checking and validation of templates. Proper governance and clear naming help prevent confusion when templates generate other templates.

Related concepts include template metaprogramming, macro systems, and higher-order functions in templating languages.