GENERAL
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Q: What is Smarty?
A: Smarty is a template engine for PHP... but be aware this isn't just another
   PHP template engine. It's much more than that.

Q: What's the difference between Smarty and other template engines?
A: Most other template engines for PHP provide basic variable substitution and
   dynamic block functionality. Smarty takes a step further to be a "smart"
   template engine, adding features such as configuration files, template
   functions, variable modifiers (see the docs!) and making all of this
   functionality as easy as possible to use for both programmers and template
   designers. Smarty also compiles the templates into PHP scripts, eliminating
   the need to parse the templates on every invocation, making Smarty extremely
   scalable and managable for large application needs.

Q: What do you mean "Compiled PHP Scripts" ?
A: Smarty reads the template files and creates PHP scripts from them. Once
   these PHP scripts are created, Smarty executes these, never having to parse
   the template files again. If you change a template file, Smarty will
   recreate the PHP script for it. All this is done automatically by Smarty.
   Template designers never need to mess with the generated PHP scripts or even
   know of their existance.

Q: Do you have a mailing list?
A: Yes. Subscribe by sending an e-mail to subscribe-smarty@lists.ispi.net. This
   is also archived at http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/ under www/smarty

TROUBLESHOOTING
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Q: Smarty doesn't work.
A: You must be using PHP 4.0.4pl1 or later to fix all known problems
   Smarty has with PHP. Read the BUGS file for more info.

Q: Smarty is recompiling my templates on every invocation.
A: This is a bug that was fixed in 1.0a, grab the latest tarball.

Q: I get the following error when running Smarty:
   Warning: Wrong parameter count for preg_replace() in
   Smarty.class.php on line 371
A: preg_replace had a parameter added in PHP 4.0.2 that Smarty
   requires. Upgrade to at least 4.0.4pl to fix all known PHP issues with
   Smarty.

Q: I get the following error when running Smarty:
   Fatal error: Failed opening required 'PEAR.php'
   (include_path='') in Config_File.class.php on line 3
A: Smarty uses the PEAR libraries for some of its error handling routines.
   PEAR libraries come with the distribution of PHP. Be sure that the path to
   these libraries is included in your php include_path. Unix users check
   /usr/local/lib/php. Windows users check C:/php/pear.

Q: I get this error when passing variables to {include}:
   Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_defined_vars() in
   /path/to/Smarty/templates_c/index.tpl.php on line 8
A: get_defined_vars() was added to PHP 4.0.4. If you plan on passing
   variables to included templates, you will need PHP 4.0.4 or later.