but that makes .renderSkinAsString quite useless, doesn't it?

no, it doesn't. using .renderSkinAsString() means that everything that would normally be rendered to response is "redirected" into a string(buffer?variable?) - i can't tell you exactly how hannes implemented this in helma, i just know the results ;-)

so you can have both: if your macros use res.write and you render a skin with renderSkin(), they will write directly to response. if you use renderSkinAsString(), they won't. (have a look at the .hac-files in antville, there you'll find mostly renderSkinAsString(), just at the end the main page.skin is rendered using renderSkin())

thanks robert! that explains everything (almost ;-) ...