vl-decl(-1st)/test

That code reads like Chinese to me.

It is much more powerful than templates though, and faster too. It can look inside text and search for or replace individual characters. So it could also strip out acute accents and underdots from accented Vulgar Latin forms, which a template can't do.

Templates are cryptic enough as it is. Spending frustrated weeks trying to learn complicated programming does not rank high on my priority list. Just delete the template that I made, and consider making a module.