Another PHP Framework that falls flat - PHP on Trax
February 7, 2006
A rails alternative in PHP? Sounds great, I dont have to spend my weekend learning Ruby. That's what I hoped when I came across PHP on Trax which dubs itself as a Rails alternative for PHP. At first glimpse of the code they do a nice job implementing a dynamic active record setup to quickly generate the most commonly needed funtionality. Where this framework really falls flat is documentation, samples, and support. There is one BARE BONES example of how to create a new application. Thanks, that rocks. I'm now sitting here 4 hours later still trying to get it work with parse errors, fatal errors all over the place. I know what you're thinking.. hey if you're pissed why don't you write it? Screw that. If you're going to promote a framework to the community at least have some halfway decent docs. Here is a GREAT quote from the ruby on rails developer David Heinemeir...
"The biggest hurdle is documentation, which needs to be reviewed and extended. An open source infrastructure project is worth little more than its documentation in my opinion, so releasing something half-baked would sell the package short."
The man says it all. You want a framework to cut your development time, not have you digging through source code to try and find errors and documentation.
PHP Trax has potential, yet falls flat for lack of documenation, support, and/or general community interest.
"The biggest hurdle is documentation, which needs to be reviewed and extended. An open source infrastructure project is worth little more than its documentation in my opinion, so releasing something half-baked would sell the package short."
The man says it all. You want a framework to cut your development time, not have you digging through source code to try and find errors and documentation.
PHP Trax has potential, yet falls flat for lack of documenation, support, and/or general community interest.
D Porter says:
February 18, 2007 @ 06:22 — Reply
PHP on Trax did sound promising. I went to the site and looked for documentation; there is none. So, I figure, I'll give it go anyway. I tried to download it...and couldn't. The pear module is not present. Finally, about an hour later, I find a copy and download it into my pear installation and given on the site. I follow the direction on the site--nothing. The trax.php file which handles CLI produces errors. I'm over two hours in now and have yet to get it even installed properly. I gave up on it. So far the best framework for PHP that I've come across is Code Ignitor. I say this for several reasons: 1) there framework has the most complete documentation of any framework that I've come across. 2) The framework is not bloated, its lightweight. It gives just enough of a framework to knock the monotony out of programming, but not so much so that one is locked in. However, it is still a young framework and need more work. After searching for several weeks for a descent framework--I think I will just bite the bullet and learn Ruby.