The Processing Instruction (PI) Macro

The PI (Processing Instruction) macro provides a means of defining the separator text to be inserted between the code pieces (which represent entities) that are generated using a template.

The structure for setting the Processing Instruction is:

%PI=<value>%

where <value> is a literal string enclosed by double quotes, with the following options:

By default, the PI is set to generate a new line (\n) for each non-empty substitution, which behavior can be changed by resetting the PI macro. For instance, a Class’s Attribute declaration in simple VB code would be generated to a single line statement (with no new lines). These properties are derived from the Class-Attribute Properties in the model to generate, for example:

Private Const PrintFormat As String = "Portrait"

The template for generating this starts with the PI being set to a space rather than a new line:

%PI=" "%

%CONVERT_SCOPE(attScope)%

%endIf%

%if attConst == "T"%

Const

%endIf%

On transforming this, attscope returns the VB keyword “Private” and attConst returns “Const” on the same line spaced by a single space (fitting the VB Class.Attribute definition example above).

Alternatively, when generating a Class you might want the Class declaration, the notes and Class body all separated by double lines. In this case the %PI is set to "/n/n" to return double line spacing:

%PI="\n\n"%

%ClassDeclaration%

%ClassNotes%

%ClassBody%

PI Characteristics:

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