I agree completely that the choice of template engine
is a matter of taste - Template Toolkit, HTML::Template
and the others are nice tools. I've tried most of them,
partly because I sometimes teach this stuff and wanted
to understand the various pros and cons.
For my own work I've settled on HTML::Mason. Although
the installation is typically more involved than several
of the others, I don't need to do that often - usually
only when I re-install the whole Apache/mod_perl/Mason
shebang. I like the the fact
that I can create small components with any mixture
of html and Perl that I like, and re-use and test them in various pages; the test/debug cycle of these components
feels like what I typically need to do with Perl subroutines. I also like the fact that I don't need
to learn a different "html scripting" language for
use in the HTML; I can use real Perl.
