[Typo3-dev] Better templating: PHP!

[dan frost]

Hi,

I have recently worked on a system of templating 
based on....PHP! Basically, using output buffering 
(functions prefixed with ob_) we can "include.." 
php/html files directly. This has dropped 
debugging time from (approx) days per page to 
(sometimes) seconds or (mostly) mins. Also, syntax 
highlighting is easy in most editors!

My questions is: I know that there are security 
problems with literal includes of php files, but - 
is there general interest. I have managed to 
reduce other parts of projects (complex screen 
flows, logic, permissions etc) to take a few hours 
- but templating is SO hard which it's not in a 
language that you can't debug in <= 1second! (nice 
that 1!=1...!!!)

...and finally, my question is: what are the 
barriers to making a reduced-php which is safe to 
allow non-admins to use? Making a TemplaVoila-like 
interface would be quite simple becuase the 
TV-Object-array just puts php-marks (e.g. 
$this->someButOfStuff) in place of html things... 
The problems is (always) the security....

Anyway... late night ideas... any ideas??

Dan