LC Server style survey: co-mingle code w/HTML?

[Richard Gaskin]

I have some tools I developed for server apps, which allow me to develop 
and test both client and server within the same local LC IDE instance. 
As you can imagine, this has improved development efficiency by orders 
of magnitude.

It's much a much more xTalk-like way of working, and once you use it 
having to be tied to a server for every little test feels like building 
a ship in a bottle with tweezers while wearing a blindfold.

When I started making these tools I was using standalones exclusively 
for server work, partly because it reflects my habits gained from using 
LC as a CGI for many years before LC Server existed, and partly because 
I have no need to co-mingle code in HTML like PHP does, except a few 
cases where the merge function works quite nicely.

Thinking about this more recently, it seems these tools need not be 
limited to server deployments using standalones, and may be modified to 
provide the same server emulation for deployments that will use LC Server.

However, because the desktop version of LC has no means of executing LC 
Server scripts (due to the HTML wrapped around any code), the ability to 
enjoy such a fluid workflow is limited to those server apps where the 
.lc scripts contain only directives to load standard LC Script libraries.

That limitation fits my own work, including current work for one client. 
But does it fit yours?

How many of you using LC Server rely on its PHP-like model that 
encourages mixing HTML with LC code?

Or maybe the better question might be:

How many of you have server systems that already separate HTML from 
server code like most non-PHP solutions do, or could affordably 
transition to that model if it could simplify your development workflow 
significantly?

Side question for the dev team if they see this:

Would it be reasonable/affordable to add some means of enhancing desktop 
LC so that it can at least parse and attempt to execute LC scripts 
embedded in HTML?  I can emulate environment variables and the like, but 
the incompatibility between LC and .lc has been a real development 
bottleneck.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com