RE: [SMARTY-DEV] Smarty compiler

Perhaps I should have been more specific in what I meant by a "real compiler"! I didn't mean to suggest that smarty should create binary files at all, but rather change the internal workings of smarty to function as a complier and produce php code, as Smarty does now. I can see that the majority isn't interested in making the switch, but I'll offer my opinions anyway. I am still offering to help in other areas, assuming I haven't offended anyone too badly ;) > 4) In other words, why is a 'real' compiler an improvement? The first advantage is that syntax checking would be much easier. Smarty would no longer produce php code that was invalid, thus saving debugging time. How many people haven't wasted some amount of time trying to track down a bug to find out that they were simply missing a {/foreach}? The second advantage is one that was mentioned previously, that mathmatical and other language constructs could more easily be introduced into the smarty grammar. What will not be changed greatly is speed. That was never my intention. In fact, I would venture to say that the compiling phase of Smarty would be slower than now, and runtime would be the same to slightly slower. > 5) Can it be done without breaking backward compatibility, > given current Smarty syntax? Yes. > 7) What are some other other pros and cons? The main con I see is that it will take some time and effort to convert Smarty over. That time and effort could better be spent improving the existing code. The main pro is that future development work on Smarty would be easier and the results of Smarty more consistant, especially when the template itself is invalid. Brandon Inman __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos http://launch.yahoo.com/u2