(Re-) Introducing Layout Components
I have been using the same approach for site layout code for about five years. I have written about it a little bit in the past, but I decided (finally) that it made sense to package it up as a download and write some real documentation around it.
If you are already using an MVC framework on a project then it probably has a solution for layouts backed-in, if not then I would recommend taking a good look at Layout Components. They make layouts easy without introducing any of the challenges that usually come with layout solutions.
http://www.cfmzengarden.com/CFMZenGarden/010/
It had its moments.
I forgot about CFMZenGarden. That is a really great resource!
As it happens, the cf_layout custom tag doesn't actually have anything to do with cflayout. I can see that the name could be confusing, but it still seemed like the best name for the custom tag.
Layout Components could be used without that tag as well.