It’s kind of funny. After trying to understand Zend 2, I decided that I was happier with Core PHP. I noticed that anyone can pick up any framework and learn it in a few days, or even a few weeks, but to master it, you really need to spend a lot of time with it. I’ve spent 11+ years with PHP at the time of this writing. I know PHP.

Why have any framework? For most do it yourself type projects, just build a website from the ground up. You already have 4 great layers (Apache or server, MySQL or Database, PHP or backend language, and HTML, CSS, JS all in one). This looks like a LAMP stack to me. Why do I like keeping it this simple? Well, you don’t “need” anything else. Really. This is all you need to build anything. And I do mean, ANYTHING! You name your project, and i can build it.

My only caveat is jQuery. I’ve gotten used to it over the years, and in a way I wish I could go back to plain JS. I mean, for the most part, I still use JS, I just use jQuery for selectors / DOM manipulation, events, and the ever so simple to use ajax function. The main reason I use jQuery is because, otherwise, I would just write my own functions to do all these things. jQuery just makes sense to use.

My next task is to convert all my jQuery into JS at some point. Why? Because that’s what the browsers understand. The browsers don’t understand jQuery, or angular, or LESS or SASS on their own. They need pre-processors and libraries to convert all that.

This brings me to my other point. The backend should be no different. PHP is what is already installed on the server. Running PHP code in your files speaks directly to the PHP installation on Apache. You don’t need additional overhead to make things work better. Write PHP, done. You can structure your PHP in logical functions to make it work for you, such as getMeSomeData(), or renderThisHtmlBlock(). But that’s it. At its core, PHP is a great and most opened and powerful framework of all. Why add so many layers of abstraction on top of it?

My next good practice is to write MySQL directly into my php code. Why not? That’s the fastest processing you’re ever going to get without involving overhead. Use propell? Why? Just so you can stack php functions that eventually build out what you meant to say with MySQL anyway? Again, more layers of abstraction? What’s the point? Because it doesn’t “LOOK” like SQL? Is that really a valid excuse? Learn some damn MySQL like a good programmer, and remove all those PHP overhead functions to keep your site optimal.

It’s not what you use, it’s how you use it. Developers have become so lazy over the years, and no one cares about code itself. They treat it like they’re bored of it and just need to add layers of complexity.

The only thing that matters is how the client side performs. All of my projects’ pages load faster than 2 seconds, out of which most load under 1 second. In the end, that’s what matters. And, the turnaround time for most of my development is minutes, not days like most projects dependent on builds.

And I simply don’t want to discuss things like memcached, composer, ruby (for SASS), or any other dependency that’s simply not necessary. Are your websites fast? Then, that’s what matters. I worked at this one company where they would be concerned with micro optimizations such as to use array brackets instead of array_push function. At the same time, they were using propel that would run through dozens of php functions to get data, and their pages were loading in over 4 seconds, with unoptimized images, and over a hundred http requests. I just don’t understand this sort of mentality. These things should matter no matter if you are running an SEO site, or a private LAN intranet. Users will complain when your site loads in over 2 seconds. That’s a rule.

I’ve built many systems over and over and over only to come to the same conclusion. Simplicity just works better. Ask Steve Jobs.