Question

I’m working on yet another framework for PHP, and have run into a small dilemma. I’m currently working with the core modules, which all are supposed to work stand-alone but I’d like to have a class that creates a default setup or environment that can be used directly or extended by your app. So I need to find a good term/name for this class.

Current candidates:

• Engine
• Environment
• Main
• Base
• Init / Initializer
• Bootstrap
• App / Application (Chosen!)

The class resides in the Core-namespace, i.e. Framework/Core/ClassName.

Since I can’t decide on which one to use I’m hoping you guys can help me pick the right one by shedding some more light on the terminologies of frameworks. I welcome new additions to the list above.

Just to make this as clear as possible, here’s an example of how it’s intended to be used:

use Framework/Core/ClassName as App;

// Create instance
$app = new App;
$app->run();

// Static initialization
App::run();

The above will setup a default environment with the most commonly used features of a modern framework. It will load config and url files from default locations and also setup default dispatch routes.

Answer 1

i usually try to use separate my Application and Config objects. Like

class MyApp extends App
     task specific methods

class MyConfig extends Config
     task specific settings

$app = new MyApp(new MyConfig);
$app->run();

The former can be called App(lication), Engine, Dispatcher, etc – something that emphasises it “actor” nature, the latter can be Environment, Config, Settings, Options etc.