Re: templating, anyone?

It's already written :| On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 20:48:54 -0500, Ryan King <ryansking@mac.com> wrote: > > > > On Sep 3, 2004, at 1:30 PM, Sebastian wrote: > > > Hi! This is my first time writing, so go easy on me :p > > > > I've had a couple of conversations with the folks at pear-group and > > about another templating engine and received their thoughts, but yours > > matter, too. I'm going to provide some of the conversation (my > > reasoning behind wanting another templating engine) and see what you > > guys think. If someone is currently working on a templating engine and > > would want to implement the things I speak of, I would be glad to help > > with that project. Otherwise, please consider the following :) > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > > > (Pasted from another e-mail to pear-group) > > > > Before you object, I want to let you know that yes, I already know > > there are tons of templating engines written in PHP, even ones that > > may implement PHP's native parsing ability. If there are already > > engines that implement what I have implemented, please point me to > > them because I have not found any. I wouldn't be requesting if I were > > able to find something that implemented what I wanted :) Let me start > > by stating what is wrong with many templating engines: > > > > - They are templates on top of templates. Special languages are > > constructed and parsed to do what PHP already does natively. These > > types of engines are inherently slow and inconvenient because you must > > learn X parsing language (and regardless of simplicity, time is > > money!) > > - Footprints are too large -- there is usually too much code to be run > > which adds to the longer load times and poor performance on lower-end > > machines > > - While some of the engines I looked at used a method I propose, they > > used output buffering! And to what benefit? None, that I can see. > > While some of the engines provided a filtering function, albeit > > useful, is slow in any implementation that I can think of (more > > parsing, more memory, less performance.... > > - Some of the engines whose source I read were very basic but had many > > of the aforementioned issues, making them undesirable. > > > > I made a number of references to engines whose source I browsed: > > > > http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=123769 -- I > > read source for 16 of the engines listed in the first post on that > > page -- they all (included a couple of other engines I found on the > > 'net) had the issues mentioned above. > > > > Now, let me talk about what I propose: > > > > - Template parsing is done natively by PHP -- no tricky dance moves, > > parsing overhead, or learning curve > > - No output buffering, output is echo()'ed (or include()'d, as the > > case may be) when requested -- this prevents overhead > > - Nested objects (fun), named objects (eases dynamics of creation and > > breaks from linear logic) > > - Locking (quietly prevents others from adding templates when you have > > finished your page) > > - Approximately 200 lines of code (most of which is wasted on > > formatting for readability) > > - Fundamentals -- the engine I propose is very basic, but this doesn't > > mean "un-featured." Considering the way it was written and what it > > does, it provides opportunity for subclassing and scalability -- > > adding filtering or caching (for example) is only a few steps away > > (although I realize taking those steps may leads to the aforementioned > > problems) > > > > For most large-scaled projects I have worked with, I have never used a > > templating application such as Smarty -- usually they were simply too > > heavy or too complex. Providing such basic > > functionality would allow one to easily add or change functionality > > I definely agree that Savant [http://phpsavant.org] is closest to what > you're looking for. Even if Savant or Savant2 doesn't do one of the > things you request, extending would be much simpler than starting from > scratch. > > -ryan > > ------------------- > "There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired." - > The Great Gatsby > > http://homepage.mac.com/ryansking/ > > -- ------------- buddhahead@gmail.com