[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
Don't get me wrong Derek i can understand why you added it. CI is more your baby than it's mine anyway
I have the idea the libraries should be markup-less to make them more reusable. i understand your criticism about adding an extra function call but creating a helper for the language class has two advantages as i see it.
First you have less typing. $this->lang->line('someline') vs lang('someline')
Second you can make it more clear what the functionality is. $this->lang->line('someline','for') vs lang_label('someline','for')
A helper makes it possible to create functions like
lang_h('someline',1) -> <h1>someline value</h1>
lang_link('someline','controller/method','id="attrributes"') -> <a href="http://site/url/controller/method" id="attributes">someline value</a>