Using a diferent templating system than smarty

[stevenjm]

the main drawback i experience with prestashop is its use of the smarty template engine. its obvious im not the only one as evidenced by the very small number of templates available.

i find it much easier to use a system like using html include files for templates with php template tags embedded within them.

am i the only one wishing for a different templating system for prestashop and is there any talk of future releases addressing this issue?

There are so many functions like loops etc that are written in smarty language that your average web developer with php skills becomes daunted at having to master smarty language in order to do decent templates. Could the php code be written a little better so that so many smarty functions are not needed and even get rid of smarty altogether?
thanks.