Re: [PHP3] Re: [PHP Template] Re: [PHP3] PHP Template Engine spec revision 0.52

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Andrei Zmievski wrote: > On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Zeev Suraski wrote: > > If it can be sophisticated, it means that people who want to read it would > > have to be familiar with this spec, thoroughly, even if they're already > > quite fluent in PHP. That's the bad thing. Having the ability to decide > > whether it's simple or complicated is not a plus, it should be simple by > > definition. > > Being fluent in more than one language is not a bad idea, I think. Don't > limit your options. But requiring a user of PHP to be fluent in more than one language - is. If he wants to learn another language, so be it, but PHP itself should not feature two 'competing' languages. > 'if' was an easy example. Compare this: > > {section} > Headline: {@headline} > {if #LAST} > <hr> > {/if} > {/section} > > with this: > > <? for ($i=0; $i<count($headlines); $i++): ?> > Headline: <? echo $headlines[$i]; ?> > <? if ($i == count($headlines)-1): ?> > <hr> > <? endif; ?> > <? endfor; ?> > > No contest for me. Well, no contest for me either. Undoubtfully, the different syntax does not call for adding a whole new language on top of the existing language. You're essentially saying that you don't like PHP's syntax - it's your, or your designers' right, obviously. But if they don't like it, they shouldn't use it; We shouldn't add a new syntax to PHP to make them happy. The JSP/VB example applies here. Zeev -- Zeev Suraski <zeev@zend.com> http://www.zend.com/