For example I see Node.js a lot of peopple have been mentioning using jade or swig. I am building a Node.js app that will use RESTful interface for communicating with the client. I want to be able to send and receive updates. A lot of tutorials I've been seeing or apps I have been seeing online use jade or some other template engine.
What is the advantage of using a templating engine on the server vs. just serving up a bunch of regular html/javascript and allowing the client to render certain pages based on what information is sent to it from the server? How does a server-side tmeplating engine improve a use of a RESTful interface? edit: is there any advantage or is it just personal preference?
If it is advantageous in some way, I will invest the time to learn it now before I get too far in my project rather than wish I had learned it earlier :-D
Here is an example that uses Jade-lang.
SGML-like markup languages are hard for both computers and programmers to read. Template engines usually help speed up programming by using smaller tokens and syntax. Also, if you go through a pre-processor that templating requires, you can add variables and logic usually.
The downside is that it takes cycles to render the template. Usually though this isn't a problem, as most projects are hindered by time-to-market and not lack of processing efficiency.
I use Jade for most of my projects, because it's very easy to transition from HTML to Jade and also intuitive. I had hardly any learning curve difficulties going from HTML to Jade.