Zend Framework I’ve downloaded the 1.8 version of Zend Framework and looked over Zend_Tool these last days. What can I say. What is there to say. Zend_Tool is cvasi-useless. You can use it to create a new project, as a shortcut to cp -r :) . It also generates a xml file with all the project’s data, which is really useless, I mean, you can’t do anything with that file, there aren’t any tools that use it. You can use it to add methods and controllers (it also creates the associated views) – again nothing that a 10 lines python script can’t do.

It lacks all the “good” features such a tool should have. What I expect from the next release of Zend_Tool is:

  • automatic form generation based on a database table’s structure, like CakePHP’s bake and scaffolding
  • easier customisation – I don’t want to write a Zend_Tool based application and use it to write my Zend Framework app
  • allow usage of a custom coding standard (I use tabs for indenting, not 4 spaces)
  • much, much better documentation

And now for something positive, I really like the new bootstrapping system they’ve introduced in the 1.8 release.