Variables

Variables are simply HTML comments formatted in a particular way. The first character after the comment markup should be a colon (:), both for setting and getting variables.

There not many restrictions for variable names. It can have funky letters, spaces, etc. as long as there isn’t a =, since that is used for determining where the value starts

Setting variables

Variables are defined simply in the form of identifier = value, where the identifier is the variable’s name, and the value can be a concatenation or a simple value define.

Basic

Directly assign a value to a variable. These can be either:

  • A string. They are marked with quotes around the text, and the beginning quotation mark must match the end quotation mark. The backslash () functions as an escape character, so if you want to use a backslash, put two. Computers are hard… so if you plan on using a comma (,) make sure that they are escaped with backslash () !

    <!--: String = "my string" -->

  • A math equation. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division only, but no parentheses!

    <!--: Math = 3 * 7 + 1 - 1 -->

Concatenation

String together two or more variables and strings. Each entry is appended one after another without spaces in between, so if a space between is desired, it would have to be appended as a string.

<!--: String2 = String, String -->

would make String2 equal “my stringmy string”, while:

<!--: String2 = String, " ", String -->

would make String2 equal “my string my string”.

Getting variables

It is as simple as simply saying the name of the variable (and nothing else) within the comment.

Any instance of this:

<!--: String -->

Would be replace with whatever is stored in String, that is simply the phrase “my string”.

Example

Say you want a variable named copyright that simply contains the copyright text of your page or site. You set it by saying:

<!--: copyright = "2020 Zumi" -->

Note how the quotes go around the thing you want to set it to, because it marks the entire thing as a string.

In case you want another variable containing the full copyright string, you can use concatenation:

<!--: copyright text = copyright, ". All rights reserved." -->

This tells it to store a variable named copyright text that takes the text in copyright and appends the string “. All rights reserved.” right after it, without any space before it.

If you write the copyright variable assignment as <!--: copyright = 2020 Zumi --> it will assume the copyright variable must be equal to the value in the variable 2020 Zumi, and that’s not very ideal..