Re: template engine...why???

I have to disagree with this opinion :) While PHP supports the basics of a templating system, it does not constitute a serious templating system. One of the large advantages of a templating system is hiding the complexity of logic with simple embedded macros/tags/whatever. When doing so a person without any knowledge of PHP can easily make use of the logic. Take for example templating system that uses a simple XML style and outputs an HTML <img/> tag. One might expect to see something like: <myImage src="/foo.gif"/> And the template compiler would output: <img src="/foo.gif" height="23" width="45" /> Now I know you said this would be slow, but methinks you are assuming a run-time templating engine. If so then sure, it ultimately boils down to more overhead; however, if it is a compiler which runs once producing the output then even caching mechanisms via PHP cannot match the speed of retrieving and outputting the image dimensions. This is a very trivial example, there is plenty of room for much more powerful simplification using a templating engine. I do concede the point though that right now, most templating languages aren't exactly so simple to use :) Cheers, Rob. Rasmus Lerdorf wrote: > > Don't discount the fact that PHP was originally a templating system, and > it still is! My contention is that any general-purpose templating system > will eventually evolve to become PHP because you simply cannot solve all > templating problems without some presentation-level logic and once you add > the first signs of template-level logic, you will eventually turn into > PHP. > > You can of course simplify the problem and limit the scope so that you > only address a thin slice of the problem. But you don't really need to > layer a templating system on top of PHP for that. You just need to apply > a little bit of discipline and come up with a sane architecture. Take > this, for example: > > > http://talks.php.net/presentations/slides/intro/php_app_arch.png > > An illustration of using this 4-layer architecture is here: > > http://talks.php.net/show/nytips/2 > > (Yes, I know it looks like crap in IE. View it using Mozilla) > > If you can't run Mozilla, you can view the plain PDF version here: > > http://lerdorf.com/nytips.pdf > > So, please, before you start layering slow templating systems on top of > PHP, have a look at using PHP itself as your templating system. If you > are at all concerned about performance you need to seriously consider an > approach like this. > > -Rasmus -- .---------------------------------------------. | Worlds of Carnage - http://www.wocmud.org | :---------------------------------------------: | Come visit a world of myth and legend where | | fantastical creatures come to life and the | | stuff of nightmares grasp for your soul. | `---------------------------------------------'