2010-03-26: Serpent 1.3 is now available.

• compiler serpent: Made it possible to dump all variables passed to the template via $this->vars
• made PHP 5.3 compatible
• added possibility to add a new inheritance branch via :render
  
  So :render has now a new function, :include mirrors the old functionality

Serpent is a lightweight templating engine for PHP. It was designed to seamlessly integrate into existing MVC frameworks.

It uses PHP itself as its template language, so you do not need to learn a new markup language. On the other side you get many improvements compared to pure PHP.

What it has: (Overview in Detail & Documentation)

• short syntax for php tags (shorter than PHPs own short tags wich are also possible)
• no additional markup language
• dot syntax for arrays (like Smarty)
• shortcuts for your own functions
• template inheritance
• definable resources and compilers
• compiling engine for best performance
• E_STRICT compatible
• additional compiler for the Creole Wiki Markup Language

What it does not have: (Why it is missing those features)

• template security
• caching system
• overhead