Now I know simple PHP…have built small applications with PHP…have never used CakePHP nor smarty.
My questions are:
1.Will smarty individually help and make things easier?
2.Will CakePHP individually help and make things easier?
Can both smart & cakephp be used with wamp?
I’m not an expert in PHP. I am at the intermediate level…you can say. So would it be tough to learn cakephp and smarty?
I can’t get what I’m working on done fast enough. In the meanwhile, stay away from smarty. It’s the worst thing you’ll ever do to your code.
In my opinion, the answer to all your questions is Yes.
Cakephp is an application framework whereas smarty is a template engine and both are written with PHP but you do not need to know PHP to use them.
Here is a nice article to get you started if you wish to try them out:
http://bakery.cakephp.org/articles/HyperCas/2008/06/11/the-cakephp-blog-tutorial-with-smarty
Smarty may have many limitation and drawback but many people, especially designers, find it very useful. Staying away you may miss out a set of valuable tools that help you build websites quickly and efficiently.
PHP is a template engine. Why the Hell build a template engine in a template engine? It’s like buying a pickup truck to pull a semi-truck, it’s downright stupid and utterly unjustifiable.
I’m not here to defend or promote smarty, nor I have never used it myself. But I know it is a popular system where many developers use it for their projects. Someone put together a list of such projects using smarty:
http://smarty.incutio.com/?page=SoftwareUsingSmarty
I’m sure they all disagree with your assessment. If you can pull a semi with a pickup why spend extra to get a tow truck? A pickup will surely be more versatile; like taking it for a fishing trip. Do that with a tow truck and see how many people will be looking at you.
However, if you write up a more detailed article of why one should stay away from it then not only will it be helpful for people to make that choice but save them from wasting their time as well.