Good old ‘includes/common.php’ is back!
In the last couple of days I’m writing a small demo-like database driven PHP app - you know, the kind where you show how to put records of something into the DB, take them out, list, edit, etc. - pretty simple stuff.
The catch is that this is to demo pure PHP - no frameworks of any kind. No complex design patterns or paradigms (such as MVC), no rewriting rules.
I must say I haven’t done this in a while. It feels good on one hand - remembering the power and simplicity of pure PHP. On the other hand it sucks ass - so many things (especially edge cases) you have to take care of yourself - things like execution flow, including that good old bootstrap file on the top of each script (yeah, each page in my app is a different script! remember those days?), manually taking care of layout and common HTML elements, validation - even manually writing so much SQL seems odd.
If you have some free hours this weekend, I suggest you try it - just to remember what it used to be like 5 years ago. It’s a good way to appreciate (or not) the framework or library you’re working with these days.
I know just how you feel. I recently had to do a manual database conversion, and I’ve gotten so used to having several levels of abstraction shielding me from such manual duty… it was a blast from the past.