Professional PHP

Tobias Schlitt has a lengthy comparison of the new ezComponents and PEAR. He goes to great lengths to show that ezComponents and PEAR do not compete.

I’ve also seen some ill informed speculation that Zend PHP Framework will kill off PEAR. Um, not gonna happen. PEAR is a library, not a framework. Well, PEAR is a repository of libraries, not a framework. Well, I don’t know what PEAR is, but its not a framework.

What is a framework? I wrote a little bit about this in The value of MVC, but according the the GOF:

A Framework is a set of cooporating classes that make up a reusable design for a specific class of software. …

The framework dictates the architecture of your application. It will define the overall structure, its partitioning into classes and objects, the key responsibilities thereof, how the classes and objects collaborate, and the thread of control. A framework predefines these design parameters so that you, the application designer/implementor, can concentrate on the specifics of your application. The framework captures the design decisions that are common to its application domain. Frameworks thus emphasize design reuse over code reuse, though a framework will usually include concrete subclasses you can put to work immediately.

A reusable design for a specific class of software? That doesn’t sound like PEAR. It does sound a bit like ezPublish. Is ezComponents a framework by this definition? I don’t know.

Sebastian Bergmann doesn’t see competition between ezComponents and ZPF, suggesting that you can swap and combine. Scanning the list of ZPF components and the ezComponents shows overlap. Can you swap out ZTemplate for ezComponents Template or ZInputFilter for ezComponents UserInput?

I applaud ezComponent’s use of the PEAR installer. I hope that Zend PHP Framework embraces the PEAR installer as well.