XML input

Hi It's been months now that I've had the following idea : Obtaining the template's variable values from the XML output of a php script, using Expat and Output Control functions. I believe this is interesting for several reasons: - it allows to think in PHP, to think and write embedded code - Meanwhile it abstracts the design logic - HTML templates are designer-friendly, XSLT scripts are not - Expat seems reasonably fast I would like your opinion on the subject. Do you think it's a good idea to work on ? Have you heard about similar projects ? I am now thinking about implementing this as a Smarty plugin, but it seems as some kind of "Input Filter" lacks. Am I wrong ? Greetz --og