>how is this better than other xml based templates, such as wicket, TAL, Kid, Genshi etc.
I don't think it is. To me it is just the haskell template engine in that style (which is the style I prefer). That style of template engine is the minority, so most comparisons are vs either mixed style (php/asp/jsp/rails) or vs custom syntaxes (mustache, haml, etc). What is good about heist certainly applies to similar template engines like lifts, zopes, etc.
I don't think it is. To me it is just the haskell template engine in that style (which is the style I prefer). That style of template engine is the minority, so most comparisons are vs either mixed style (php/asp/jsp/rails) or vs custom syntaxes (mustache, haml, etc). What is good about heist certainly applies to similar template engines like lifts, zopes, etc.