Django Template Assignment Tags

Based on the information provided, I can offer some context about assignment tags in Django templates.

Current Assignment Capabilities in Django

Django 1.4 introduced the assignment_tag helper function to template.Library to make it easier to create template tags that store data in a specified context variable. This was a step toward allowing variable assignment within templates.

Your Proposal for a {% set %} Tag

Your proposal to add a Jinja2-like {% set %} tag to Django's template language would extend Django's templating capabilities in several ways:

1. Inline sequence creation - Creating lists and tuples directly in templates
2. Function calling - Potentially allowing calls to arbitrary functions
3. More complex assignments - Going beyond what the current assignment capabilities offer

Considerations

When implementing this feature, you might want to consider:

1. Compatibility with existing Django template syntax - Django's template language is intentionally less programmatic than Jinja2
2. Security implications - Allowing arbitrary function calls could have security implications
3. Implementation approach - You could build on the existing assignment_tag functionality

Alternative Approaches

If you're looking for more advanced templating features like those in Jinja2, you might also consider:

1. Using Jinja2 directly - Django supports Jinja2 as an alternative template backend
2. Custom template tags - Creating specific tags for your use cases

The Jinja2 backend in Django requires installing the Jinja2 package and configuring it in your settings, but it would give you all the features you're looking for without having to implement them yourself.

Your proposal would bring some of Jinja2's flexibility to Django's native template language, which could be valuable for projects that are already heavily invested in Django's template system.