Question

I am new to using Symfony, and I finally settled on it after trying both CodeIgniter and CakePHP for nearly month each.

I have a sufficient know-how with web frameworks but absolutely no idea for Symfony framework.
Now I am in a bit of confusion here since Symfony 2.0 beta is here.

I just wanted to know should I start learning Symfony 2.0 beta or Symfony 1.4, considering the future expectations. Symfony has a tough learning curve and hence, I don’t want to go through it again later.

Answer 1

Why start to learn an “outdated” technology? Consider the following:

• Symfony2 is not in beta anymore!
  This means the code is (should be)
  stable, and thus ready for
  production.

• Symfony 1.4 (although it is great, I
  must say) has an end of maintenance
  date of November, 2012.

• Performance wise, Symfony2 is much,
  much better than Symfony 1.4

• Symfony2 uses Doctrine 2 as ORM
  (although others can be used) and the
  Twig template system, and both
  of them are (in my opinion) the best
  out there.

• Symfony2 uses PHP version 5.3, which
  has great new functionalities. This
  should be the only point to watch
  carefully, since many
  production servers still don’t
  support PHP 5.3, but I guess this
  should change over time.

Since you quote “future expectations”, I wouldn’t think it twice and jump into Symfony2.