Hello,

on 08/03/2006 02:01 AM Robert Cummings said the following:
>>>> Anyway, you may want to read this more in depth reflection of the state
>>>> of the PHP framework world and recommendations on how to pick what suits
>>>> best for you:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.phpclasses.org/blog/post/52-Recommended-PHP-frameworks.html
>>> I've read it before... it was crud. You provide no recommendation for
>>> any framework but instead try to pimp phpclasses. From what I gathered
>>> you haven't even actually tried anywhere in the vicinity of 10% of the
>>> frameworks in existence and yet you feel obliged to write a commenatary
>>> called "Recommended PHP Frameworks" in which you don't even recommend a
>>> framework. Additionally somehow while pimping phpclasses you also feel
>>> it necessary to indicate how you don't use any code other than what you
>>> write yourself. Egads, if you won't use the code on your site why the
>>> hell should anyone else?
>> The answer to that question is in the post. I only use my own (PHP)
>> packages because I can. Not everybody can afford writing package for
>> their own needs from scratch.
>>
>> Why would I lie when that post expresses exactly how I feel?
>>
>> The point of the post is that there is no framework in particular to
>> recommend. I use my own packages for my needs. They suit me well. It
>> does not mean they will suit everybody.
> 
> How would you know that there is no framework to recommend if you neve
> ruse anyone's code but your own. How could you have possibly given any
> framework sufficient attention to have any idea of its pros and cons?

I know many frameworks that exist, I have seen their code and their
documentation, which is more than enough to reach the conclusion that
using the frameworks that exist is not better that using my own
solutions for my own purposes.

I do not need to jump off a building to realize that it would not be a
better idea than using the stairs or the elevator.

It is a bit exaggerated metaphor because I really do not think that
using somebody else's PHP code is like suicide. I just think that using
my own code that is proven and has matured during many years, is much
better for my own purposes than using something existing frameworks.



>> The PHPClasses site content is made of packages contributed by
>> developers that wrote their own packages. Those other packages often
>> serve the same purposes as some of my packages.
>>
>> I am pro-choice. That is the spirit of the PHPClasses site. Everybody
>> can publish their packages. Let the users be the judges of which are the
>> best for whatever purposes. That is pure fair play. Is that a bad thing?
>> I don't think so.
>>
>> I also would like to emphasize what I said above regarding the total
>> lack of organization and cooperation of the PHP community.
> 
> You can't have your cake and eat it too. You're either pro-choice with a
> myriad of choices to choose from, or you're anti-choice and want only
> one framework style. Get of the fence!

Having standard API specifications does not prevent anybody to choose
using solutions based on APIs that do not conform to any standard
specifications.

Furthermore I do not think that seem to understand the difference
between an API specification and API implementation. J2EE is an API
specification with many implementations from different vendors: Sun,
IBM, Oracle, BEA, JBoss (this last one is Open Source). You can choose
the implementation you want.

There is plenty of choice to anybody. If you want to use a J2EE
implementation to build your applications, otherwise you are free to use
something else.


>> If there were standard specifications for packages and frameworks like
>> there is in the Java world, maybe you would not have this discussion.
>> There could be a consense to use the same standard API with eventual
>> multiple implementations from different developers or vendors.
>>
>> Imagine if there would be only one PDBC (JDBC for PHP). Instead of that
>> we have a never ending choice of PHP database abstraction layers that
>> does not help newcoming developers that are lost and don't know what to use.
> 
> You presume that any chosen standard methodology or whatever you want to

I am not talking of implementation methodologies, I am talking about API
specifications. The same API specification can be implement with
different methodologies. As long as they pass API compliance tests, that
is all right.


> call it would be correct. Because if it wasn't correct, no matter how
> organized you think a community might be, something different WILL
> emerge. Right now there may be 100 frameworks, probably still growing,
> but not all will be accepted into mainstream use, and that ultimately
> will determine which one's have staying power or at the very least --
> which ones have reach. The fact that there are so many is a testament to
> how easy it is to manipulate the power placed in the hands of the PHP
> developer. It is not indicative of disorganization within the community.

You totally misunderstand me. When I talk about lack of organization in
the PHP community, I am not saying that the people that implement
frameworks are disorganized. What I am saying is that there is no
organized effort to site together and produce standard API
specifications for the frameworks, like there is the Java community.


>> This is admitidly a criticism to the lack of organization of the whole
>> PHP community including myself. We are all guilty for this mess and I am
>> afraid there is not much hope to fix it.
> 
> You mean we should all be happy that so much choice is available!

I am pro-choice, so having choice is a good thing.

That is not my point. My point is that for instance, when you want to
develop PHP database applications, there is no consense on which API
would be the best to use.

The reason why it is a bad thing is that that when people develop PHP
components that need to access to a database, they will hardly support
more than one database API. Whoever uses other database API may not
benefit from those components.

Let me give a concrete example, I have developed some plug-ins for this
forms class that provide auto-complete support to text inputs and linked
select inputs. They use AJAX to retrieve auto-complete text options and
switch the linked select options from a database on the server.

http://www.phpclasses.org/formsgeneration

It is not viable for me to support all database API that exist for PHP.
Actually it is already a big deal that that I could find time to support
MySQL (directly) or a bunch of other databases using Metabase or
PEAR::MDB2 API.

The developers that use other database API cannot benefit from these
auto-complete and linked select plug-ins, unless they develop variants
of the plugins that support the database API that they prefer, but then
they would be on their own as I would not be able to provide support to
them.

Everybody looses opportunities with this. If there was a standard API
database specification for PHP like PDBC similar to JDBC, there would be
no such problem.

-- 

Regards,
Manuel Lemos

Metastorage - Data object relational mapping layer generator
http://www.metastorage.net/

PHP Classes - Free ready to use OOP components written in PHP
http://www.phpclasses.org/

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