There is a long explanation, and today is a bit rainy, I don't see other plan, so I'm going to write.
The beginning
As in everything, there is a beginning and mine was back in 2007, around August. After a frantic search to join a software company and work with software teams, I had only been in two companies in the past months and boy, that didn't work at all. I was doing Visual Basic 6.0 or Lotus Notes. The pay was really crappy, I was a junior developer with some knowledge here and there on Visual, some javascript and I was teaching myself PHP, Apache Httpd and GNU/Linux.
After getting really tired of working with Lotus Notes, I quit. I dind't had any other job opportunity, I just blindly quit and said, I'm going to research PHP and I'm going to get a PHP job.
Oh man, that was difficult, I had some months of experience, and back then, everything was complex, I was learning how to compile the GNU/Linux kernel, learning how to compile software, man, that was interesting, but it was really stressful. Anyways, I landed my first Php gig, the pay was good, I was doing something I was interested, and well, that's when we started.
We were doing custom CMS systems, and we were using custom Javascript to make the xmlhttp request (ajax...), we were giving our first steps with prototype and scriptaculous, making fancy ui's, drag and drops, ajax pagination, here and there, and guess what else ?.
Yeah, you are right. Custom php code !. We didn't even learn frameworks, we wanted too, but our boss didn't want to, he said that they were stupid, and overall, side aside the technicalities , he didn't want at all that we waste time learning a framework.
Not because he was mean, or he didn't care, I can't vouch on that though, the thing is, when you are working on a company, and they have a way on doing things, they won't stop it.
See, it is really expensive to throw away a method that it works, for some experimental thing.
I know what you are thinking, but if you keep on reading, you will also see my conclusion.
I'm not saying that I don't like frameworks or that cash is more important than learning proper coding techniques. I'm a developer, or programmer, or whatever you want to call me, I'm strictly interested in developing my coding skills to the fullest possible, and though, I do also have to admit, that I do need cash to live and to code, and maintain myself. I do recall reading this a long time ago on a phrack magazine or something like that, it was something about hacking and hackers, hackers also need regular jobs to live , eat and have a family, which is something that we sometimes forget... anyways, back on my idea.
I've got a couple of years of experience under my belt to consider myself just a tad good. Not saying that I'm the best , but I don't suck either. I do keep in mind that I always have to learn and study, and that the learning never stops. When that idea fades away, it means that either I'm dead or I'm not longer interesting in coding or software.
So, that was my 21 year old me, coding and wanting to learn "frameworks".
Oh boy, I recall, the first one I picked was Zend Framework.
I read it, and read it some more, and read the docs, and I promptly switched to something less complex, went to codeigniter, but I was like, ehh, this blows, I went to php on trax, because there was some stuff called rails or something like that, and this was the same. I spent a good time learning a couple of the frameworks, until I had to change my job again.
Keep in mind that here I had a brief idea of what a framework was and what classes were.
I took a course on design patterns and started to read about design patterns and the GOF and I was brutally excited about the idea of the frameworks.
My first job with a custom framework
Anyways, I was about to turn 22, I joined a multinational company, that they were using a custom framework. And oh boy, I was thrilled. They were using a custom framework, so they were doing things right and using a custom framework was good, because whenever you are young and you get influenced that X is good because X is used by many people and that's the way things should be, then they were right.
Well, my excitement lasted less than months.
See, coding a custom framework , and do please keep in mind that this is just an opinion article, not a white paper, is the most brutally stupid idea that you can have.
And here is my opinion, based on my experience on companies.
At least you kidnap the developers that write the framework , when they leave, you will have different people maintaining whatever the heck they did. And here is another thing that people don't see when they code their own framework. People is different. Getting the idea behind what people is trying to do with code, sometimes is really complex or impossible, and you enter on a refactoring cycle that is brutal, and most of the times, is impossible, and that is when you start patching here and there, and when you want to think about it, you have a pile of code that is overrided everywhere, nobody knows for sure how things work, solutions take times, everybody is damn unhappy and well, you know the rest, you work late, contracts needs to be finished on time, but your team is either stupid, to slow, or they have the wrong tool.
Using known frameworks
Using paid or free frameworks is always a good idea.
Here is a simple, limited, synopsis of why it's a good idea.
- Paid or free, there is a userbase and there are more chances that you will find a problem and it will have solution
- Paid frameworks or solutions have technical support that you can contact and get answers (I'm not even vouching for private companies or GNU/BSD solutions), just saying, if there's cash, there is someone behind you, if there isn't, well, you will have answers from the community, if you didn't pick nothing to weird. It may also means that you have someone to yell at if things don't work like they are supposed to.
Which framework, for PHP I liked ?. I liked Zend Framework a lot. Because it didn't had a complex set of rules, they had components. I've used zend framework for two years, but I only used the version 1, I don't know nothing at all about Zend 2 or how it is, because I do no longer use it, I like Python , and I code in python, but on my paid job, I have to use laravel 4.
Here is the real reason behind why I like components. After having some experience on a couple of PHP frameworks, I noticed that most of the frameworks forced the developer to do things on a particular way. Zend didn't give you that at all.
They had a guide that you can follow to create controllers, views and models, or whatever you wanted to do. Zend just give you pieces, like, let's say, a toolbox with tools, but they didn't tell you how to use them, you are on your own , if you want to use a hammer to cut a piece of wood, you can do it, it won't be nice or look good, and will be more difficult, but you can do it if you want to.
Other frameworks, such as symphony , cake, codeigniter, they force you to do things on a particular way, you have to go from point A to point B.
Zend components will let you do whatever the heck you want to do, even shoot yourself on the foot.
And you may be pondering why I think this is good.
Well, here is the thing. All the frameworks dictate a way on how things are done, and if you want to draw out of the lines, then you are wrong, you should always follow their idea of what is good and bad.
That is not how things work, and sometimes, or most of the time, I always get things that I have to fight against the framework, and usually, the answer is either, or the specs are wrong, or well, the client is wrong, because the framework doesn't allows me to do that.
I know that at this point , I need something concrete. I'm going to leave that for a later article, so I keep you hooked up with something.
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