That would be a good move. Smarty was very difficult to work with when I had a phpLD directory. It was the only real negative aspect of phpLD, IMHO.
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I've been looking at CodeIgniter, CakePHP, and Symfony for a potential upcoming project.
It seems to me that CodeIgniter is the best fit for this requirement.
I've read a lot of conflicting reviews, many with the tenor of religious fervor. One of the least crazy is from Steve Jamesson. He leans towards CakePHP, but his application differs from mine.
Yes, we took one step away from Smarty, but did not completely remove it. We moved from Smarty validation to Jquery validation. Potentially, we could completely move away from Smarty, but there are plenty of good things to say about smarty too, and lots of scripts use it. But there are areas where Jquery is really kicking but now, and validation is one of them.
If I were going to go with a framework (or change), I think Zend would be high on my list
http://framework.zend.com/
These guys pretty much invented what we know today as PHP, and they have some of the best in the industry. I visited their office here in Silicon Valley, and it was kind of cool to see some of the people that have made so much possible to everyone.
I go by that area sometimes. I'll have to take a picture of their office sometime. :)