Re: Re: [metabase-dev] MDB news (http://pear.php.net/package-info.php?package=MDB)

On Sun, 15 Sep 2002, Lux wrote: > I've also already had DB abstraction before PEAR was even around (sure > Metabase kicks it's ass in functionality, but whatever ;)), and I've > been using a custom "CGI" class (inspired by CGI.pm, I used to be a > Perl guy) for a good 2 years before PHP finally decided it was bad to > use register_globals. But I still appreciate what PEAR and PHP Classes > are trying to do. I've gotten more use out of PHP Classes than PEAR so > far, but I follow PEAR with great interest (it appears Manuel does > also). I'm sure we've all developed our own application libraries that we could use well before PEAR's inception. I've been working hard to convert all of my existing code to the "standard." This may or may not be feasible for everyone, but I would rather spend my time developing my software than updating and maintaining a database abstraction class. Obviously, this is a personal preference that is most likely decided by the amount of work it takes to update code with a different API. :) > The coding standards don't match my own, sure, and since I have users > already relying on my API I can't go changing mine to match PEAR's > (which is what prevents me from contributing), but a standard library > does need some level of consistency. I can dig that. But I think the I had some minor changes in my coding style to conform to pear. I spent an entire weekend fixing just one class -- and it's still not fully done. I think it is incredibly important that the coding style be mandated. Otherwise, you end up with people creating all sorts of wacky ugly code. At that point, each "module" is separated. Modules created by author xxx look and act incredibly different than modules created by author yyy. The recent talk about a standard set of methods for classes is also a good idea. Building a string representation of a class suitable for display should be the same across the board, regardless of the module. It will make the entire project much easier to use. Defining and enforcing these standards make the entire project more useful as a whole. If we didn't do this as a community, we would merely have and easy way to download PHP libraries (ie. CPAN). Why not build an application framework instead of a code library? -eric