Rename PHPTemplate to DrupalTemplate when it goes into core

I predict quite some confusion amongst the developers and users who use PHPtemplate if we change the name. No, I give this a -1.

I will try to phrase it nice:
I beleive that when people in a professional production environment, let their choices be dictated by a name, they are being very unprofessional.

Or, as I would like to phrase it (cannot withstand the urge to wrtie this down):
Such small minded people should get themselves together. Letting your choices be dictated by a name, phew. :). Obviously they are so boneheaded, that they do not beleive the guru/expert (Chris Messina) nor various wrtiings and posts about it (forums, books). ;)

I think that removing xtemplate from core, and making all the example / default themes be phptemplate will go a long way at getting rid of the
confusion.

my two cents is it is a good idea to change the name to drupaltemplate....especially now as it is emerging as a powerful & popular theming engine.

(a) easier to search for

(b) makes more sense

(c) existing phptemplate users, I think, will get it straight away and I think the long term value over any short term confusion is well worth it.

Dub

I agree with Bèr. The name is good as-is because it accurately describes how templates are created: PHP itself is used to create the templates rather than adding the overhead of an extra template parser.

The term DrupalTemplate, on the other hand, gives the impression that we (meaning Drupal) have created our own template language, which may or may not be standardized in any way. It also implies that DrupalTemplate would be the ONLY way to theme Drupal, which is simply untrue.

For the same reason, "The Drupal Theming System" is terrifically misleading; there is MUCH more to the Drupal theming system than just PHPTemplate. What about phptal, smarty, xtemplate, and non-template themes (.theme files)? What about styling existing themes by just adding stylesheets? These all can contribute to Drupal's "theming system" and are actually part of theme.inc (in core) or other contributed bits of code.

I have no direct complaint about "DropTemplate", other than it may remind people of the now-disabled drop.org.

My vote goes for keeping the name as-is. I like the term "PHPTemplate." Sorry, guys.

-1

Chris, get a clue bat and clue them in. Can be fun if done right.

1) Drupal has in general much less themes than other CMSes. This is due to the complexity of the task to produce a theme for more than the frontpage.

2) I think what we need some serious PR measures to change this. Changing a name won't cut it. Chris, you should maybe do a series of blog posts about theming with phptemplate. Roland and Boris have done something like this and I guess they wouldn't mind if you added to their effort.

The forces that commit to cvs apparently didn't agree with the idea.

Actually I agree with Factoryjoe on this issue. Not, only can in be confusing to many end users, but the PHP developers discourage inclusion of the PHP "brand" name in projects like this. So much so that PHPTemplate might be in violation of points 3 and 4 of the PHP version 3 license:

3. The name "PHP" must not be used to endorse or promote products
derived from this software without prior written permission. For
written permission, please contact group@php.net.

4. Products derived from this software may not be called "PHP", nor
may "PHP" appear in their name, without prior written permission
from group@php.net. You may indicate that your software works in
conjunction with PHP by saying "Foo for PHP" instead of calling
it "PHP Foo" or "phpfoo"

That being said the PHP police most likely aren't going to care too much, but they care enough to address the issue in the PHP License FAQ:

Q. I've written a project in PHP that I'm going to release as open source, and I'd like to call it PHPTransmogrifier. Is that OK?

A. We cannot really stop you from using PHP in the name of your project unless you include any code from the PHP distribution, in which case you would be violating the license. But we would really prefer if people would come up with their own names independent of the PHP name.

Why you ask? You are only trying to contribute to the PHP community. That may be true, but by using the PHP name you are explicitly linking your efforts to those of the entire PHP development community and the years of work that has gone into the PHP project. Every time a flaw is found in one of the thousands of applications out there that call themselves "PHP-Something" the negative karma that generates reflects unfairly on the entire PHP project. We had nothing to do with PHP-Nuke, for example, and every bugtraq posting on that says "PHP" in it. Your particular project may in fact be the greatest thing ever, but we have to be consistent in how we handle these requests and we honestly have no way of knowing whether your project is actually the greatest thing ever.

So, please, pick a name that stands on its own merits. If your stuff is good, it will not take long to establish a reputation for yourselves. Look at Zope, for example, that is a framework for Python that doesn't have Python in the name. Smarty as well doesn't have PHP in the name and does quite well.

Sorry to be a stickler, but at the very least, the someone should contact the PHP group and recieve the authorization in writing that the name PHPTemplate is fine by them before this is marked as "won't fix".

Actually.

i am going to rename it to 'template', and integrate it deeper into Drupal core.

But it won't have anything to do with changing the name for whatever reason. It will be because i want to make everything that is great about phptemplate available to all themes/templates. Stuff like loading the template.php file for extra settings / hooks, etc.

The template engine part of phptemplate is 4 lines of code. The rest is all logic about gathering variables and handing them over to something to be displayed.

Adrian: Note that Drupal core already supports supplementing individual templates and/or styles with additional PHP code through use of .theme files. I need to write some official docs for this, but here are a couple descriptions: one two three

I like this method better than template.php, which seems intent on naming every function with the phptemplate_ prefix. Anyway, 'twas just a thought. I'll reserve judgment until I see the actual patch you're suggesting. Please try to keep traditional .theme files and other theme engines in mind as you fiddle with the theming code... a lot of us are still running (many) sites that are not phptemplate (or whatever we're calling it)-based. :-)

No. You misunderstand. Themes would still work exactly as before. As will theme engines. Infact, your life would probably be simplified.

Your custom template engine loading code would still work , but it would work just as fine without it. You would also have access to phptemplate's mechanism to add new functions through stub functions. (ie: create a 2 line function that enables loading of a hookname.xtmpl file)

and naming every function phptemplate_ is just so that you maintain copyability. You can name your functions themename_ too, but you just won't be able to copy your templates without modifying the contents of the files. Even in your .theme files you don't need to name your functions themename_

I am closing this feature request, as it's for a not supported project version. If you want to see this feature implemented for a supported project version, please re-open this issue.