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Not to say that this occurs in every php software out there, but I far too occasionally notice that the application is written with scattered php open and close tags, for instance <?php if(true) ?> <?php { ?> Blah blah blah, because it's true <?php } else { ?> because it's not true <?php } ?> To me, it is extremely irritating. Regardless, I see a lot of open source software written this way and I can't help but think that there must be some underlying reason for it. Magento, for example, is written exactly in this manner. The templates are infested with these opened and closed php snippets. Obscurity is not security so I'm ruling security reasons out. Maybe it is more efficient? -- But I couldn't understand why, if so. It seems like that would put more of a drag on the system itself causing php to start and stop parsing continually and excessively, then again, I'm no expert in the field of memory consumption and other operating system complexities. Honestly, in my opinion, it is stupid. i would never write a program that way.. HEREDOCs are much more useful and eye pleasing than that awful <?php { ?> I had the misfortune a few months ago when I purchased an invoicing/customer maintenance system that I didn't know was written for PHP 5.2 or something lower, one that allowed short tags; and thus short tags were used in the same manner as I've described. Is this just plain disorganization or is there some deep-seated inner lining advantage that I'm not aware of?