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I used to be like you, not using a framework for exactly the same reasons: I wrote everything myself, and since it's PHP, it wasn't that hard. I knew how to exactly when something was going wrong, I didn't have that power of clarity when I was using a framework. But over time I've learnt the following lessons: 1. I was naive to think that my code would be better than the code of an established frameworks that have undergone through extensive testing by a big community. 2. It's a lot harder to bring people on board to help with coding. I can navigate my code very easily, but many people who are used to how to do things in a framework found it very hard. 3. Without the help of a community, I had to code EVERYTHING myself. There is no gem or plugin to install, which will REALLY help speed things along. In a startup environment, speed is a real competitive advantage, every bit of speed you can gain over your competitor should be pursued. I can't stress this enough. 4. When you run into serious problems, Google search is unlikely to help if you don't use a framework. You're likely the only one with that problem. Whereas if you use a framework, there's a very high chance other people have run into the problem before, and the error thrown out will be in a Stack Overflow or a bug tracker somewhere. Your life will be much easier when trying to track down serious bugs. I used to use PHP for about 5 years, and I think the problem with PHP and frameworks is that there are so many frameworks around, and we just don't know which one are the one to use. So many developers have this question. Code Igniter or Kohana or CakePHP or... 20 other frameworks out there? It really sucks when you have to put in the time to figure out which frameworks work for you, and it's one of the reasons why people don't use a framework in the first place. Where as for Python, Django is a clear winner and Ruby, there's RoR. Those languages have many other frameworks too, but they have a clear winner with a large community who could help you. As for me? I'm now doing almost everything in Ruby and Rails, and not looking back. I feel very good about the way I work now. I have become as good with Rails as I was with my own code, and it only took a few months. I suggest you give it another try. It will be time consuming at first, but it's very worthwhile in the long run. |