innocenat

The very first programming framework I have ever used was CakePHP. That was around the time when MVC framework was hyped (around 8 years ago, if I remember correctly). But to say my experience with it is not so good. In fact, I remember I fought with it way more than I really used it.

The reason, if I am asked now, was that I hadn’t really developed really large web application before, and a lot of those helpers/indirections didn’t make sense to me at all. It just overwhelmed me. Really. There are lots of thing to learn: MVC, ORM, conventions etc etc etc. And that time I was very naive.

Even today, frameworks usually require you to understand many things in order to do anything useful (not just standard simple blog tutorial). Even though I have progressed a lot in my code-fu since that time, I still find a lot of thing today overwhelming to me.

The complexity of how things work together, or how data flow in large framework, is mind-blowing. To top that off, it is usually not very well documented (though experienced programmer will usually be able to guess it easily). I haven’t really use large framework in quite a while, so maybe things does get better since then.

There was time when I am against large framework.

But that was a mistake.

I realised that way later than I should.

Of course I am not saying you should just use large frameworks and deal with it. On the contrary, I am going to recommend not using it for now.

Of course, when I was against large frameworks, I just cooked my own small framework to use (I think it is still alive somewhere in project hoster – it was named litecode). But after a few projects, I start searching for micro framework to use instead. Why? Because it is usually not worth the hassle maintaining it, especially fixing bug in code path that wasn’t used in past projects.

And then I developed large application, using my own glue code to combine several micro frameworks together to provide all functionalities I need. And it was quite painful to maintain. Because it was a mess of cross-framework glue splatter everywhere in the code.

For my next application, I decided to develop my own indirection code. As I continued with the project and refactored the indirections/glue code, I came to realisation that these are exactly what the large frameworks are providing.

Of course, the above was in context of PHP web application framework. But I have done the same with many other things too: game framework and graphics framework to name a few.

What I want to tell is that: do question how existing things are implemented, divulge into it, tare it apart and study how things are accomplished. Then start writing your own, base on your idea, in real project. Chances are, you will likely arrive at same method anyway. But it will be a very educational.

But that is only if you have time. If you don’t – just use whatever you are familiar with. It is usually not worth it for tight project.

I haven’t updated this blog in a while, and I apologise for that. I actually have a lot of unfinished blog post I wrote, but as it is unfinished, I can’t publish them yet.