--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/makeitso.txt	Tue Jul 30 00:34:35 2013 -0700
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+Make it so!
+===========
+
+*A new file templating system*
+
+Requirements:
+
+ - ability to specify delimeters (both for file interpolation and
+   filename interpolation);  normally, i'd want '${' + '}', but this
+   works poor with, say, bash scripts, and not having this makes it
+   difficult to write templates that make other templates
+
+ - ability to find the variables used in templates;  I find this
+   absolutely critical.  In PasteScript, this isn't there (unless you
+   use cheetah) and it is problematic if you want to deal with
+   templates programmatically.  If you do allow things, like
+   single-file templates, then this becomes mandatory. 
+   This is to say, amongst other things, there should be a
+   command-line option that will list the template variables.
+
+ - ability to make existing directory structures or files into templates
+
+ - ability to interpolate single files (or strings), especially via an API
+
+ - ability to use defaults (--use-defaults) when they are specified
+
+ - ability to save variables used in a run into a file: 
+    makeitso --save-variables=myvars.txt mytemplate)
+
+ - ability to have executing script files (for packaged tests or via a shebang)
+
+ - a dotfile for metadata (e.g. ~/.makeitso)
+
+ - hooks for things to do after creation (licensing, uploading
+   somewhere, creating a repository, etc)
+
+ - not having to name template files 'foo_tmpl';  it is better not to
+   munge the file extension at all and have other mechanisms for
+   denoting files to be interpolated
+
+ - single file usability
+
+Nice-to-haves:
+
+ - ability to use python in interpolation [HARD?]
+
+ - backwards compatability with pastescript templates
+
+ - ability to inherit from templates [HARD]
+
+ - ability to munge files (e.g. combining setup.py from several
+   packages) [HARD]
+
+ - a web interface (or a few)
+
+ - ability to push changes from a downstream instance to a template [HARD]