[dev] Horde as a framework

[Chuck Hagenbuch]

Quoting Michael J Rubinsky <mrubinsk at horde.org>:

> Quoting Chuck Hagenbuch <chuck at horde.org>:
>
>> http://fabien.potencier.org/article/49/what-is-symfony2
>>
>> Good post and impressive list. This is where I think we lag behind  
>> as a framework, and where we have an opportunity to either leverage  
>> our own components - which are great, but which I personally have  
>> less time to work on these days - or to start using some of the  
>> symfony/zend/whatever components to replace our own and move  
>> faster. Obviously we used to leverage more PEAR libs and there were  
>> challenges to that, but maybe things have changed?
>>
>> Or maybe not. Mostly throwing this out for discussion.
>
> Personally, I would rather not start using another framework's  
> components unless there was a *really* good reason. At least not for  
> any type of major functionality. It's not so much about NIH for me,  
> but more about control. I like the fact that we are using less and  
> less PEAR libs. While it *does* increase our workload a bit (more  
> libraries to maintain for one thing), it gives us *way* more  
> flexibility and control. ... and while it might not always turn out  
> this way, it should translate into less time to work a bug/issue (no  
> headaches with getting upstream to even ack your question/bug  
> report/patch etc...)
>
> Also, IMO, if we are going to continue to try to push Horde as not  
> just a groupware stack, but also a PHP framework, I'm not sure  
> borrowing another framework's libraries for any major functionality  
> would send the right signal. We may not have the same number of  
> libraries, but those that we *do* have are both extremely well  
> thought out and designed to our own high standards ... at least  
> that's the hope ;)

Yeah... I mean, I think Gunnar is right about some of the Symfony2  
packages at least. But I also am not saying we should ditch all/most  
Horde packages that have alternatives - but that if we're going to  
keep them, we should have documentation and posts and examples as  
compelling (imo) as the one I linked. Awkward and somewhat jerky for  
me to say this since I've had so little Horde time lately. But that's  
how I feel.

To some extent, I think it's about picking the spots where we think  
we're really the best and pushing those, and maybe re-using packages  
for some other less crucial bits.

-chuck