>>78,79
I still don't think it's good enough a reason to use 'dumb' templates. They cause inflexible apps, where the designer is only allowed to write HTML loops in a well-defined zone of the page and just insert placeholders. Sites made this way often look like data dumps straight from the DB, with a lot of needless metadata around, and a lot of opportunities to make the user's life easier lost.

I think that the designer must be able to do very basic programming (loops, conditional logic), and the coder must understand design (but doesn't have to be talented). Ideally, they should be the same person, but that isn't often possible. The coder should be able to do most of the HTML the designer requires, so that the designer should only need to work with CSS.

As I see it, the choice is wether to have a programming language, or just having placeholders. In-between options are also possible, but they tend to be the worse of both worlds. I will always go for the first option, because it allows me to do a better work in less time - maybe that's just because I'm lucky enough to be able to do both the app and the design myself, but when I see the limitations and missed opportunities caused by using non-coder-friendly templates, I just think there's no place in web apps for people who aren't versatile enough.