diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index b886c68f..eb58a63d 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+    - add default modifier logic (Monte)
     - updated popup_init to be xhtml compliant (Tom Oram, Monte)
     - fix filename bug with windows (Gary Loescher, Monte)
     - add ability to supply expire time in seconds when clearing
diff --git a/Smarty.class.php b/Smarty.class.php
index 5d876197..dec395fb 100644
--- a/Smarty.class.php
+++ b/Smarty.class.php
@@ -152,9 +152,9 @@ class Smarty
 											// sub directories are more efficient, but
 											// you can set this to false if your PHP environment
 											// does not allow the creation of them.
-	var $default_modifiers		= '';
-											// modifier string to implicitly append to every var
-											// example: '|escape:"htmlall"'
+	var $default_modifiers		= array();
+											// modifiers to implicitly append to every var
+											// example: array('escape:"htmlall"');
 
 /**************************************************************************/
 /* END SMARTY CONFIGURATION SECTION                                       */
diff --git a/Smarty_Compiler.class.php b/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
index d65d46bc..2707ae70 100644
--- a/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
+++ b/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
@@ -1109,9 +1109,9 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
         $var_ref = $parts[0];
         $modifiers = isset($parts[1]) ? $parts[1] : '';
 
-		
-		if(!empty($this->default_modifiers) && !strstr($modifiers,'smarty:nodefaults')) {
-			$modifiers = empty($modifiers) ? $this->default_modifiers : $this->default_modifiers . '|' . $modifiers;
+		if(!empty($this->default_modifiers) && !strstr('smarty:nodefaults',$modifiers)) {
+			$_default_mod_string = implode('|',(array)$this->default_modifiers);
+			$modifiers = empty($modifiers) ? $_default_mod_string : $_default_mod_string . '|' . $modifiers;
 		}
 		
 		$modifiers = str_replace(array('smarty:nodefaults','||'),array('','|'),$modifiers);
diff --git a/libs/Smarty.class.php b/libs/Smarty.class.php
index 5d876197..dec395fb 100644
--- a/libs/Smarty.class.php
+++ b/libs/Smarty.class.php
@@ -152,9 +152,9 @@ class Smarty
 											// sub directories are more efficient, but
 											// you can set this to false if your PHP environment
 											// does not allow the creation of them.
-	var $default_modifiers		= '';
-											// modifier string to implicitly append to every var
-											// example: '|escape:"htmlall"'
+	var $default_modifiers		= array();
+											// modifiers to implicitly append to every var
+											// example: array('escape:"htmlall"');
 
 /**************************************************************************/
 /* END SMARTY CONFIGURATION SECTION                                       */
diff --git a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
index d65d46bc..2707ae70 100644
--- a/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
+++ b/libs/Smarty_Compiler.class.php
@@ -1109,9 +1109,9 @@ class Smarty_Compiler extends Smarty {
         $var_ref = $parts[0];
         $modifiers = isset($parts[1]) ? $parts[1] : '';
 
-		
-		if(!empty($this->default_modifiers) && !strstr($modifiers,'smarty:nodefaults')) {
-			$modifiers = empty($modifiers) ? $this->default_modifiers : $this->default_modifiers . '|' . $modifiers;
+		if(!empty($this->default_modifiers) && !strstr('smarty:nodefaults',$modifiers)) {
+			$_default_mod_string = implode('|',(array)$this->default_modifiers);
+			$modifiers = empty($modifiers) ? $_default_mod_string : $_default_mod_string . '|' . $modifiers;
 		}
 		
 		$modifiers = str_replace(array('smarty:nodefaults','||'),array('','|'),$modifiers);