What are the real advantages of templating engines over just using PHP?

Question

I develop my web applications using only PHP for the view files and I don\'t feel limited in any way, but I hear there\'s a consistent number of developers advocating \"external

Answer 1

Separation of concerns.

This sort of things comes as standard when using a MVC/MTV approach - where the presentation of data is necessarily separated from the display of data, but not if you're using plain ol' PHP.

Using a template engine makes it easy to separate out what's being displayed from how it's being displayed.

I suppose you could argue that this falls under "babysitting bad developers", since a good developer ought to do this anyway, but in my view, a template engine makes it easier for good developers too.