NYCPHP Meetup

[David Krings]

Kristina Anderson wrote:
>>
>> I noticed a few days ago that someone did a Twitter post and said that
>> DRUPAL is what you use when you are a "failed" programmer. From what I

Then you haven't talked to those who are fluent in assembler, I mean, really 
fluent. Many of them think that higher programming languages is just kiddie 
stuff you dabble with in high school.

> I'm another "ambivalent about frameworks" PHP programmer.  10 years ago 
> for the web, there were no frameworks for anything, and people were 
> impressed by simple stuff like a mouseover effect or a pop-out menu or 
> a website that actually used a database!  Now, there is code already 
> written for all this stuff -- frameworks as it were -- and that raises 
> the bar on what we, as programmers, need to produce in order to impress 
> people.

I'm im pressed with software (web or other) that works and is consistent. I 
currently do a project that involves time calculations and metric measurements 
as well as UI portions, all of which were developed by different programmers. 
The new code is correct, but all the old code is horribly wrong. The same time 
value is calculated differently by each developer and of course it is never 
the same. Same for UI, each piece looks and behaves slightly different.
What we need and already decided to do during the next evolution of the 
application is to create a framework. Why code something that is already 
there? Why invent the wheel twice and wrong both times? It is this detail work 
that once done and of good quality replicates this quality into every piece of 
code that makes use of the framework.
That said, I looked at Drupal some time ago as framework for a custom CMS / 
workflow app and I was impressed. It is really nice work. I eventually 
scrapped the project, not because Drupal didn't work out, but because it was 
mile high over my head and due to lack of domain knowledge not well designed 
from the start. I still had some fun and made great experiences.

There is nothing wrong with using a framework if it is a good, solid framework 
of excellent quality. As mentioned above, any bug in the framework will sooner 
or later become a bug in your software and then it is your task to deal with 
it.....unless you code in .NET and conveniently blame it on Microsoft like all 
the other inept .NET developers (about 90% of all .NET developers).

So go ahead, use Drupal, it's nice stuff.

David