Question

I’m aware of the benefits of using a PHP framework (not first hand though, just by reading SO, etc.) But what I don’t hear about is the amount of “unlearning” a framework requires. When using a framework, you hand control to the new framework and you have to “unlearn” many things and re-learn them the new way as your new framework requires. Is this true, and which framework is most flexible when it comes to this unlearning aspect?

Answer 1

Not really, it just depends on what/how you’ve learned something.

It also depends on the particular framework, some add useful functions and tips, while others suggest (or force) you to use different forms of development, filestructures, and functions.

In php, for example, you still can do pre_replace(‘[A-Za-z]’,$user.name), would still work, but is_alphabetical($user.name) would do the same thing.

You still can use the same functions, but some frameworks require you to rework your program’s structure, while others just provide helpers, functions, and database classes to use.

I’ve heard that http://codeigniter.com/ is the most augmenting framework, flexible when it comes to program structure, while http://cakephp.org/ is much more opinionated.

It’s not like ruby on rails or django where you would learn a total new language, you still have and can use php, but it’s best to stick with good programming principles with the framework, instead of work around them with php.