Has it been suggested that the SSI-type syntax of Zope isn't the most readable thing in the world? Is this even the right list to suggest this heresy or should I strap on the asbestos underwear and wander over to zopedev?

Well, it encourages the violation of seperation of data, logic and presentation. It's necessary to understand that DTML is really more of a REPORTING language, not a scripting language... so if you're writing huge things that are like this, then in many cases you need to consider breaking them apaart. Having said that, the current "leap" from DTML to External Methods is too great, and so there's been some talk of a Script object---this i think would be more useful than the changes to the syntax. Also, <% %> is totally invalid HTML and XML :-)

Yeah, easy for me to say "oh just go rewite the parser" and then walk away...

The parser isn't that hard to understand :-) Once you understand it! Chris