NYCPHP Meetup

[David Mintz]

On Mon, 8 Jan 2007, Jon Baer wrote:

> I think that people coming from procedural PHP tend to have a harder
> time getting into MVC styled programming.  Especially if a complete
> framework is the very next thing they look @ without OO programing.[...]

Yes.

Speaking as a sort of perpetual semi-pro dilettante with a
non-programming-related day job, I think I can understand this issue.

CakePHP can make you weep -- with joy. You do a couple things and BANG!
It's working. I have stared at the screen, jaws agape, and said holy f__ I
can't believe it. Wow. I was so pleased, I gave them all $23.47 that
happened to be in my PayPal account.

Then again, if you are a lowly foot soldier and not really that
experienced and/or not that clever, CakePHP has the ability to make you
weep. You want to do one simple thing that isn't exactly a CRUD operation
on something that isn't quite your run-of-the-mill entity like the good
old Blog entry of tutorial fame, and suddenly it's so absurdly hard -- or
else you're just not getting it, in which case it's still absurdly hard --
and there you are contorting and sweating until you just say f__ it and
decide you're better off doing it by hand after all.

Maybe the answer is you're both right -- you CakePHP master bakers, and
you detractors who bash it for want of documentation. It's great and
marvelous and wonderful, and harder than hell for people who need a little
more hand-holding.

PS to Nate, nice to see some appreciation for Cole Porter/Ol' Blue Eyes!

---
David Mintz
http://davidmintz.org/

En Nueva York el tránsito de la belleza a la desolación sucede
siempre expeditivamente, como si el principio universal
de máxima eficiencia hubiera aconsejado la supresión de
gradaciones intermedias.

  -- Antonio Muñoz Molina, Ventanas de Manhattan