a few questions
Posted: Wed May 23, 2007 12:30 pm
As I'm developing more and more over the years. I find myself rewriting sometimes entire sections of applications to fit the specific need (or site) I'm developing. Now, this could be a forum, with a lot of queries, lots of time debugging, and lots of code. Then I rewrite it all over again to fit a new site. Lots of extra work that I've done before.
So, I'm trying to cut this out. Obviously I'm going to have to write PHP code with any site I develop, but I think I can drastically cut down on the amount of time it takes me to develop a new site... from scratch!
From scratch, I code many of the same things I use in every site I develop over again. Lots of work. So I bring on the questions of templating and frameworks.
Templating
(do you use templating?)
1. Seperating presentation from program code. This would, I think, be the biggest change for me to get used to (being a procedural programmer). Do you advocate this practice?
2. Templating and frameworks, such as smarty. Do you recommend their use? Do you use them?
3. The idea of using a pre-existing program or code (e.g. smarty) to build a new web site or application, makes me feel like I am not the soul producer of the web site.. something I pride myself on. Why would I feel like this? Should I feel like this? Have you felt like this?
4. Obviously the code in such an application would be well-tuned and finely tested. But say there's a security flaw that is exposed to the masses, leaving my applications vulnerable to a fix is released. This would be unavoidable, correct? Say there is a fix or update released.. i update.. it would be to the core files that I didn't write, so it shouldn't effect my coding/presentation. SHOULDN'T, although in some cases, it could, couldn't it?
5. Any other thoughts on templates or seperating presentation from coding?
PHP FrameWorks
1. Do you use one? Have you wrote your own?
2. It seems to me that using a framework would be a bit like learning new php functions. Classes and wrappers, all designed to do what I could do procedurally (albeit, slower) with new function names to learn, new files to include, and a bunch of headaches until I grasp the framework wholey. Even so, would I still feel like I were using PHP, instead of some "language" that's more like an API to PHP?
3. Would using a framework save me lots of time instead of creating the same basic files on every web site/application I make.
4. With the introduction of the Zend framework, will that be the "standard", or, am I "free" to choose any framework I like?
5. Any other thoughts or input is highly valued by me!
All in all the answers and input to these questions will help me decide if I'm ready to ditch my current style of writing and developing, and if this new style (for me) will be any less suitable or controllable than my current procedural programming practices.
So, I'm trying to cut this out. Obviously I'm going to have to write PHP code with any site I develop, but I think I can drastically cut down on the amount of time it takes me to develop a new site... from scratch!
From scratch, I code many of the same things I use in every site I develop over again. Lots of work. So I bring on the questions of templating and frameworks.
Templating
(do you use templating?)
1. Seperating presentation from program code. This would, I think, be the biggest change for me to get used to (being a procedural programmer). Do you advocate this practice?
2. Templating and frameworks, such as smarty. Do you recommend their use? Do you use them?
3. The idea of using a pre-existing program or code (e.g. smarty) to build a new web site or application, makes me feel like I am not the soul producer of the web site.. something I pride myself on. Why would I feel like this? Should I feel like this? Have you felt like this?
4. Obviously the code in such an application would be well-tuned and finely tested. But say there's a security flaw that is exposed to the masses, leaving my applications vulnerable to a fix is released. This would be unavoidable, correct? Say there is a fix or update released.. i update.. it would be to the core files that I didn't write, so it shouldn't effect my coding/presentation. SHOULDN'T, although in some cases, it could, couldn't it?
5. Any other thoughts on templates or seperating presentation from coding?
PHP FrameWorks
1. Do you use one? Have you wrote your own?
2. It seems to me that using a framework would be a bit like learning new php functions. Classes and wrappers, all designed to do what I could do procedurally (albeit, slower) with new function names to learn, new files to include, and a bunch of headaches until I grasp the framework wholey. Even so, would I still feel like I were using PHP, instead of some "language" that's more like an API to PHP?
3. Would using a framework save me lots of time instead of creating the same basic files on every web site/application I make.
4. With the introduction of the Zend framework, will that be the "standard", or, am I "free" to choose any framework I like?
5. Any other thoughts or input is highly valued by me!
All in all the answers and input to these questions will help me decide if I'm ready to ditch my current style of writing and developing, and if this new style (for me) will be any less suitable or controllable than my current procedural programming practices.