alarconcepts
1) A new learning curve...which is not conducive to learning by newbies or even novices (like myself).
Unless you happen to already be familiar with any of the many open source applications that already use Smarty as the base of thier templating systems. So in a sense xanthia by virture of Smarty is cross platform (but obviously not to the same level as AutoTheme). Xoops and tikiwiki both make use of Smarty.
alarconcepts
2) Same for AT. is wherever it's used.
This wasn't my point. If you use PN you will, at some, point come across a Smarty template because of pnRender. More and more modules are being written using pnRender. So you have two skills sets to learn if you use AutoTheme - one for themes, one for blocks and modules.
Smarty embeds it's commands into HTML identically to AutoTheme but I feel that Smarty's in-built commands are much wider and varied that autothemes.
alarconcepts
4) AutoTheme allows you to build your own custom commands as well.
While you can define commands in the AutoTheme admin/config files this isn't as simple as developing a plugin which is a straight PHP file. Plugins are more like AutoTheme extras - in fact AutoTheme extra are probably based on Smarty pliugins. The difference our setup (and i'm sure shawn can code this easily) is that AutoTheme extras currently have to be part of the AutoTheme module. With xanthia plugins can exist as part of the theme - no need to spread files across your PN install for a theme.
alarconcepts
8) This is the beauty of AutoTheme. It gets the job done without a lot of bloat on the learning curve.
There are some things can can be trimmed from xanthia but, as i've said already, there are features in AutoTheme (saying alternating summaries) that can be done in xanthia without the need for the engine to have this feature coded.
alarconcepts
...while I understand some of your points, I still feel that the ease of use, the sheer number of supporting sites & free themes, and quick learning curve of AutoTheme makes it the superior solution for newbies. For those who don't have any trouble learning the Smarty linguistics, as well as the structure of files->plugins->templates, maybe XTE is a good solution...but it just seems that newbies aren't those people IMHO.
In some respects i'm entirely happy for xanthia to be considered 'the power solution'. <joke>When a user outgrows AutoTheme they can move onto somemore more capable</joke>
alarconcepts
Thanks for your reply...perhaps we can agree to disagree.
)
Of course. I'm not here to convince anyone - i'll make the case but, ulimately, it's up to others to make thier own decision and do what they think it right - the PN dev team have done that.
Having the two systems is actually good for both - a healthy bit of competition never hurt anyone. You may not have template compilation, page caching, extras in AutoTheme if it wasn't for xanthia - these features come directly from thier Smarty equivalents....
-Mark
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Visit My homepage and Zikula themes.
