Hy Federico,
I can only speak from my point of perspective...
The progress of ZF in the last months is really great. We have several new
classes and functionality integrated.
Several classes you mentioned are already in progress of implementation:
For example: Zend_Builder, Zend_File_Uploader, Zend_Form...
And some have been integrated in December:
For example: Zend_Layout, Zend_OpenId, Zend_TimeSync...
There is always work for us as there are always new ideas which we are
confronted with and want to integrate them.
I don't know why you are so strong related to Zend_Service_*. Of course we
have focused in integrating much usefull services in the past. But when you
have followed the progress in the past months you will have seen that we
have also integrated several other usefull classes beside new Services.
Related to the confusion is one thing to mention:
ZF is a loosly coupled framework. This gives users the possibility to use
only parts of the framework which comes very handy if you are extending
existing code. I think this flexibility is what most non-developers are not
familiary with.
Actually we are integrating several tools which most people expect which
have used Symfony and other fixed frameworks in the past.
And we are working on integrating a set of default applications... see the
Zend_Build and related proposals from wil.
And just one thing to mention at last:
The Zend Framework is growing with every idea, proposal or usecase which is
told from the community. So even your feedback will at last be assimilated
:-)
Greetings
Thomas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Federico Cargnelutti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Zend Framework" <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2007 11:08 PM
Subject: [fw-general] Feedback and questions: 2007
Hi,
As I'm following more closely the development and progress of the ZF, I
would like to give the dev-team some feedback and of course, ask some
questions.
First the feedback:
I think ZF is relative new and the progress so far has been amazing. ZendF
has a community with very talented developers. The first impression I got
when joining the community was that web services are one of the many
priorities. I think that web services are great, they are the future right?
I'm sure that today every website uses one or more web services. But, who is
using the web services components included in the ZF? I know that in terms
of image, to associate the ZF with web services is a good thing, but, the
discussions I'm having with Technical Managers and other Developers are
always about the components that ZF doesn't have. For example, Zend_Ftp,
Zend_Form, Zend_File_Uploader, Zend_File_Utility, Zend_Debug, Zend_Build,
Zend_Image, Zend_Tree, Zend_Nav and others that honestly I can't remember
now.
Working as a contractor is a funny thing, you meet a lot of developers and
you have managers everywhere. So, in my case, when I'm in the planning stage
of a project, and discussing about different technologies, architectures and
frameworks, if the project requires the use of PHP, I recommend ZF, but, if
the project faces a tight deadline (almost always), we end up using Symfony.
I have used Phython/Django and Ruby/RoR before, but the company where I'm
contracting now, develops mainly using PHP and .NET.
So basically, Technical Managers know they don't have 2 months to develop
the missing components, and they are asking me questions such as, how are we
going to upload and resize images? How are we going to create a navigation
system? How are we going to implement a web service for authentication using
OpenID? How does the framework cope with TDD? Doe it have unit testing? A
debugger? So far, they never asked me anything about any of the
Zend_Service_* components, except in one project that we needed one for
PayPal.
Ok, that was my feedback based on my experience. And now the questions :)
- What are the main objectives and golas for 2008 in regards to the ZF?
- What are the priorities and what is going to be considered top priority in
the next 6 months?
Also, there's some confusion out there about the purpose of the ZF, some
people see it as a library of components that doesn't offer a solid system
architecture for web development, others, like myself, see it as a solid
framework with a flexible and extensible architecture. But still, there's
some confusion.
- So, how are you planning to promote the Zend Framework next year? What are
my bosses going to read or hear about it?
- How are you going to approach new developers?
Sorry for this massive email guys! I would like to know your opinions on
this and invite everyone to send their feedback.
Thanks and happy 2008!
Fed
