Feedback wanted: new PHP template engine

[Egbert Teeselink]

Hi all,

The last few months I've worked on making a template engine because
the ones out there didn't serve my needs. I guess everybody knows
Smarty and has an opinion on it; I like many things about it, but
dislike many others. The thing I made is called 'Farty' (sorry, I suck
at names) and is in many ways a simpler version of Smarty. It keeps
the good (compiling to php files, clean syntax) and fixes the bad
(having to learn a new language, limited flexibility). I also added
some pretty nifty extensibility features, and I even wrote some docs!
I believe that right now it's just about as powerful as Smarty except
for some missing pre-packaged template functions - otherwise it should
be pretty mature already.

Anyway, I've hesitated for a while because that's the shy guy I am,
but I'd really want some feedback on it now, and see if the PHP
community thinks that this is a project work continuing (and given a
better name, maybe).

As such, any comments, good or bad, either here or on the website,
will be more than appreciated.

The URL is http://e.teeselink.nl/farty

Any feedback is very appreciated!

[Joe Scylla]

Egbert Teeselink wrote:

Hi all,

The last few months I've worked on making a template engine because
the ones out there didn't serve my needs. I guess everybody knows
Smarty and has an opinion on it; I like many things about it, but
dislike many others. The thing I made is called 'Farty' (sorry, I suck
at names) and is in many ways a simpler version of Smarty. It keeps
the good (compiling to php files, clean syntax) and fixes the bad
(having to learn a new language, limited flexibility). I also added
some pretty nifty extensibility features, and I even wrote some docs!
I believe that right now it's just about as powerful as Smarty except
for some missing pre-packaged template functions - otherwise it should
be pretty mature already.

Anyway, I've hesitated for a while because that's the shy guy I am,
but I'd really want some feedback on it now, and see if the PHP
community thinks that this is a project work continuing (and given a
better name, maybe).

As such, any comments, good or bad, either here or on the website,
will be more than appreciated.

The URL is http://e.teeselink.nl/farty

Any feedback is very appreciated!

I'm a really experienced Smarty user and i must say that i like your
syntax more than the syntax Smarty uses.

I like the tag libary syntax.

I didn't testet Farty but absolute requirements are for me:

1. Good error messages if a compile failed
2. Stability
3. Ability to use objects in the template (not visible in the website or
in the samples)
4. Method chaining

And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

Joe

[Egbert Teeselink]

I didn't testet Farty but absolute requirements are for me:

>
1. Good error messages if a compile failed
2. Stability
3. Ability to use objects in the template (not visible in the website or
in the samples)
4. Method chaining

Thanks for the feedback!
1 is a disaster right now, as basically anything will get compiled,
possibly into erroneous PHP code, resulting in a parse error in the
compiled file. will work on that one.

2 and 3 should be fine, though it's hard to tell about stability of
course

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

[Erwin Moller]

Egbert Teeselink schreef:

>I didn't testet Farty but absolute requirements are for me:

1. Good error messages if a compile failed
2. Stability
3. Ability to use objects in the template (not visible in the website or
in the samples)
4. Method chaining

Thanks for the feedback!
1 is a disaster right now, as basically anything will get compiled,
possibly into erroneous PHP code, resulting in a parse error in the
compiled file. will work on that one.

2 and 3 should be fine, though it's hard to tell about stability of
course

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Party?

Regards,
Erwin Moller

[Rik Wasmus]

Erwin Moller wrote:

Egbert Teeselink schreef:

>>I didn't testet Farty but absolute requirements are for me:

1. Good error messages if a compile failed
2. Stability
3. Ability to use objects in the template (not visible in the website or
in the samples)
4. Method chaining

Thanks for the feedback!
1 is a disaster right now, as basically anything will get compiled,
possibly into erroneous PHP code, resulting in a parse error in the
compiled file. will work on that one.

2 and 3 should be fine, though it's hard to tell about stability of
course

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

>>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Party?

Smurfy?

--
Rik Wasmus
....spamrun finished

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?=22=C1lvaro_G=2E_Vicario=22?=]

Rik Wasmus escribió:

>>>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Party?

Smurfy?

Xarty? All cool names must have an X somewhere.

--
-- http://alvaro.es - Álvaro G. Vicario - Burgos, Spain
-- Mi sitio sobre programación web: http://bits.demogracia.com
-- Mi web de humor al baño María: http://www.demogracia.com
--

[Captain Paralytic]

On 29 May, 14:08, "Álvaro G. Vicario"
<[e-mail]:

Rik Wasmus escribió:

>>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

>True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Party?

Smurfy?

Xarty? All cool names must have an X somewhere.

I like that one.

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Kim_Andr=E9_Aker=F8?=]

Erwin Moller wrote:

Egbert Teeselink schreef:

I didn't testet Farty but absolute requirements are for me:
>
1. Good error messages if a compile failed
2. Stability
3. Ability to use objects in the template (not visible in the
website or in the samples)
4. Method chaining

Thanks for the feedback!
1 is a disaster right now, as basically anything will get compiled,
possibly into erroneous PHP code, resulting in a parse error in the
compiled file. will work on that one.

2 and 3 should be fine, though it's hard to tell about stability of
course

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty
reference because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty -
without sounding like a ripoff..

Party?

Or Xmarty?

--
Kim André Akerø
- ki******@NOSPAMbetadome.com
(remove NOSPAM to contact me directly)

[Jerry Stuckle]

Captain Paralytic wrote:

On 29 May, 14:08, "Álvaro G. Vicario"
<[e-mail]:

>Rik Wasmus escribió:

>>>>>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.
True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..
Party?
Smurfy?

Xarty? All cool names must have an X somewhere.

I like that one.

Naw, I prefer Z's - Zarty. Or maybe Quarty?

If it's stable, how about Hearty?

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
js*******@attglobal.net
==================

[Captain Paralytic]

On 29 May, 15:22, Jerry Stuckle <[e-mail]:

Captain Paralytic wrote:

On 29 May, 14:08, "Álvaro G. Vicario"
<[e-mail]:

Rik Wasmus escribió:

>>>>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.
True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..
Party?
Smurfy?
Xarty? All cool names must have an X somewhere.

I like that one.

Naw, I prefer Z's - Zarty. Or maybe Quarty?

If it's stable, how about Hearty?

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
[e-mail]
==================

So will we have to remove the "z" instead in future ;-)

[Guillaume]

Egbert Teeselink a écrit :

>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone?

Qwerty ? *gg*

--
Guillaume

[Jeremy]

Egbert Teeselink wrote:

>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

I'd like to suggest Fizzer (Fizzers being the UK version of the candy
called "Smarties" in the USA). Maybe too subtle of a reference - but
rhyme puns are so last year.

[Egbert Teeselink]

On May 29, 8:01*pm, Jeremy <[e-mail]:

Egbert Teeselink wrote:

And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

I'd like to suggest Fizzer (Fizzers being the UK version of the candy
called "Smarties" in the USA). *Maybe too subtle of a reference - but
rhyme puns are so last year.

Hah yeah, I was already considering M&M, but well, yeah, trademark
issues, confusion, etcetera. I like your idea though, but I'm not
British and it probably has the same problem :)

Thanks for all the suggestions btw (and please keep em coming). I
don't completely dislike zarty, quarty and qwerty btw :)

Other than that - anyone else care to comment on the actual lib as
well? :-)

Thanks for all the input,

Egbert

[Joe Scylla]

Egbert Teeselink wrote:

...snipped...

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

Like:
<code>
$object->foo()->bar()
</code>

>And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Personally i wouldn't use a name that references to Smarty because your
template engine don't have that much similarities with Smarty (beside
that your template engine using curly braces as delimiter and also
compiles the templates into php code).

Personally i would use a more abstract name because it's very difficult
to create/find a name describing a product properly.

Your main "unique selling point" over Smarty is that your template
syntax is similar to php. The name should point that out.

My Suggestions are:
1. phpTPL - php syntax in templates
2. Php Syntax Template (PST)

As alternate "fancy" name i would suggest "Coherence" based on
Quantum coherence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum...ntum_coherence)

You can argument that you php code and template code is in coherence.

Joe

[Egbert Teeselink]

On May 30, 9:13*am, Joe Scylla <[e-mail]:

Egbert Teeselink wrote:

...snipped...

What do you mean by method chaining? Calling one method with the
results of another is possible by definition, because the expression
code is simply PHP code..

Like:
<code>
$object->foo()->bar()
</code>

Sure thing, of $object is an object of course. That's plain PHP
syntax, and any PHP syntax is allowed in expressions. Cooler hacks
(with $object being e.g. a string and the chained methods working like
Smarty's modifiers) is not currently in the works, though I may add a
hack for it later.

And you shold change the name asap. It's a marketing disaster.

True that, I should. Any suggestions, anyone? I really suck at this,
so stuck with a bad joke. Somehow I'd like to keep a Smarty reference
because of how much it's been inspired by Smarty - without sounding
like a ripoff..

Personally i wouldn't use a name that references to Smarty because your
template engine don't have that much similarities with Smarty (beside
that your template engine using curly braces as delimiter and also
compiles the templates into php code).

Personally i would use a more abstract name because it's very difficult
to create/find a name describing a product properly.

Your main "unique selling point" over Smarty is that your template
syntax is similar to php. The name should point that out.

I think you're right here - just the fact that I compile and have
culry braces doesn't make it a Smarty clone or something. Thanks for
the suggestions - I'm going to add some error reporting features and
decide on a better name, and then I'll bug you guys again :)

-egbert