On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 7:01 PM, Michael A. Peters <mpeters@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Robert Cummings wrote: > >> On Wed, 2009-03-04 at 15:21 -0800, Michael A. Peters wrote: >> >>> Robert Cummings wrote: >>> >>> To punt what is repeated over and over during runtime to a single >>>> compilation phase when building the template target. To simplify the use >>>> of parameters so that they can be used in arbitrary order with default >>>> values. To allow for the encapsulation of complex content in tag format >>>> that benefits from building at compile time and from being encapsulated >>>> in custom tags that integrate well with the rest of the HTML body. >>>> >>> >>> I can't speak to those (and I have no opinion on template systems having >>> never used any of them. >>> >>> To >>>> remove the necessaity of constantly moving in and out of PHP tags. >>>> >>> php does not require that you constantly move in and out of PHP tags. >>> There's at least one and possibly several pure php solutions that allow >>> one to never write a line of html but get beautiful dynamic html output. >>> >> >> It doesn't require, but if you're not moving between them, then you're >> probably echoing your HTML, and that can be a maintenance nightmare. >> > > echoing html involves mixing html and php. > Using an XML class (like DOMDocument) to build the document does not. ive actually written a little templating system which subclasses SimpleXMLElement to achieve just that, take a peak at the syntax if you like (any feedback appreciated), http://nathan.moxune.com/phacadeDemo/ the syntax toward the bottom is what i really liked when i was starting out. the demo page is about as far as i got w/ it, though. what i ended up not liking about it, is how its joined at the hip w/ xml. suppose i want to template other things,.. css, js, php all come to mind. i could do that w/ pure php, and im sure any of these other systems such as smarty could let you template things beyond a subset of xml. what i like about this blitz module, and Rob's TemplateJinn, is an additional emphasis on performance. the other thing that i cant understand in general about templating is the whole notion of making things easier for so-called "designers", ui folks or w/e, who arent used to 'code'. in my personal experience, i have yet to see anyone actually doing that right, or anything close to it in a real environment. im not trying to say there is one way and only one way to use a templating system, but im just saying that is a halmark benefit, which i dont think ive ever seen in practice.. what i see is programmers using them b/c they feel its hepling them separate presentation and logic. that said, i think folks really should look at what templating solutions are doing or can do in their environment. i dont know, most templating systems look pretty similar to me from a distance, smarty & savant look fundamentally similar. you have a class which you populate with data, and then those are mapped into placeholders in template files. the rest of the differences seem skin deep to me, but if im missing something, id love to know. sorry for the rant, -nathan
