PHP Magazine has a quick new post from Gadgetopia concerning Smarty and it's use as a self-contained language all its own.

In a quick note from Gadgetopia, "I've been spending some time working with Smarty lately. This is ostensibly a "templating language" for PHP. But I think it goes beyond that. I assert that Smarty has become a sub-language all by itself. I thought of a much better name for this: "sand-boxed PHP." That's what Smarty is - a sandbox into which you can release as much or as little PHP functionality as you want." Read on for more Smarty goodness.

The rest of the post talks about their experiences with Smarty - the good and the bad - ultimately coming to the conclusion that they'll "never go back". They go on stating that Smarty, if handled right, could be home to a complete sub-language, very much in the style of ColdFusion. I'm not completely sure that this is a good thing, but it's definitely a possibility...