"Maybe you'll choose PHP. Templating there is easy. It's just...well...PHP" The reason PHP is popular is because it is so easy to do web apps. Thats great. The reason I wont do any more projects in it is because it is a bad template engine that encourages bad code design and makes it hard if not occasionaly impossible to break out of the "PHP is the template engine" whole. It would be like if formats where the only way to do formating in perl, it would be great if what you wanted fit in that model, but it will suck when you need something more or something less.

There are pro's and cons to having the One Right Way. The perl community as a whole seems to have decided that for most cases there isn't One Right Way. Sometimes we go the other way though, witness DBI if you doubt it. If you need a language that has one way and when things go wrong you can point and say "well they told me this was the best way" then please by all means use a different language. I for one am getting tired of finger pointing and ass covering. Either make a choice, go out on a limb, experiment, take risks and be intelligent, or go home, but don't try to make Perl into the next PHP.

Does that sound eletist and arogant? Maybe, but I think that sometimes people should take a stand and say they are right. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm at least willing to make my own choice and stand by it. I'll be happy to even admit failure when wrong and come up with a new solution and adapt. You'd be surprised at how often being honest and true works out better than just following the sheep.