because I can write my code to use text-files containing templates. When I generate HTML screens from my Perl/CGI programs, for instance, I keep the entire HTML page layout in text files, with placeholders,
You should probably look at HTML::Template for your HTML Templates, and PDF::Template for your PDF Templates.
Cool. Will do about the PDF::Template bit. Regarding HTML templates, we didn't see any need to look at any modules, because what we needed was so simple that we built it ourselves with practically zero effort.
Thanks.
Shuvam