Keith Casey wrote:
On 8/22/07, David Merryweather <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
It takes some practice for many programmers because it isn't a natural
transition, but if you can take off the programmer hat and look at your
projects from the problem and solution domain instead, you will find that
these frameworks begin to fit your new thinking. This is what I have found
watching our programmers and outsource groups make the change over.
I would challenge this point... as I've seen the opposite happening
more and more. There is a budding school of thought among new PHP'ers
that says "you do it this way or it's wrong". Yes, the developers are
to blame, not the framework, but it concerns me a bit that they're
seeing everything in relation to how it doesn't match their framework
of choice.
Methinks this is not so much PHP as plain human nature, programmers are
by nature rules-bound, thinking in terms of the problem domain is not
necessarily our first reflex, but when we learn it it it is what makes
computers really do the magic they do.
PHP is still penetrating the enterprise space and has such the community
has not "grown up" enough yet. Both behaviors mentioned above can be
seen, it depends upon where you look.
Frameworks are a result of a breakthrough in thinking -- there is not
necessarily a perfect way to do anything, but if you pick a way and do
it consistently, the consistency itself will bring real productivity
gains. You leave behind the headaches of having to work out a solution
to every problem, only to find out later what the weaknesses of your
answer were. You join a group that are all doing things the same way
and can teach each other and help each other out.
You also leave behind that naive rules-based thinking that there is only
one perfect way to do anything. But ironically it doesn't look this
way. The framework becomes the new accepted way to do things for the
sake of consistency, and sometimes people mistake that for new
rules-bound inflexibility.
That's originally why I picked up the Zend Framework. Instead of a
fixed structure for my applications, it felt more like a tool box. I
can reach in and pull out Logging, PDF creation, DB access, whatever
and only use the pieces I need. It hasn't required a
re-write/re-structuring of my applications, so it's been more
evolutionary as opposed to scorched earth. In fact, while working on
site for a major news network, I added logging using Zend_Log in about
45 minutes.
I would argue that that makes it what you called it - a toolbox, and not
a framework. A toolbox gives you ways to do whatever you want, while a
framework tends to give you more of an assembly line.
--
Kenneth Downs
Secure Data Software, Inc.
www.secdat.com www.andromeda-project.org
631-689-7200 Fax: 631-689-0527
cell: 631-379-0010
_______________________________________________
New York PHP Community Talk Mailing List
http://lists.nyphp.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
NYPHPCon 2006 Presentations Online
http://www.nyphpcon.com
Show Your Participation in New York PHP
http://www.nyphp.org/show_participation.php
