Because I have nothing better to do today aside from developing MMBNO, I decided to "interview" the creator of the upcoming SUIT Framework, Brandon Evans.
For those who don't know what it is and want to know, keep reading. PHP still sucks by the way. I'm not a fan of templating for an already built-for-templating language, but at least I hope this script will change how templating is handled in the PHP community in general.
Q: Please summarize what SUIT is, but keep it short and to the point. I don't have much time. A:SUIT is a PHP templating system without the nonsense. It is created with simple syntax and can be used with very few functions, mainly to parse and make replacements. The defining, implementation, security, and syntax is up to the user. It was built knowing that it can not possibly have every rule that everyone wants. The user is able to create nodes that parse content, using whatever symbols the user wants, and escaping with whatever symbol the user wants. For instance, none of the templates are directly executed as PHP, but if the user wants an eval node, you can declare it and it will eval. That being said, there are a few nodes included by default, as well as functions that generate a specific kind of node for conditions and loops. As the community comes up with more nodes, depending on their usefulness, more will be included. And why not? You're the one creating this thing.
Q: Which aspect of SUIT do you direct most of your priority towards? A. There are really only two things I see left. The Admin Area is a major concern because it was programmed with less care than the other functions, and I know it can be optimized, but I'm hoping the community will join in on that, modify it, etc. As far as the other functions, optimization, finding cases which trigger non TIE errors (I'm sure there are plenty of them left). But, for the most part, this base is done, and I what's left to do, for me, and everyone else, is to start devving. :)
Q: Where do you envision SUIT's usage in the distant future? You seem to be very proud of your work, despite having disapproval by few people. A: As I mentioned above, I don't see many improvements left for the program. I envision various software developed with the system, hopefully a few of my own for personal, open source, and freelancing purposes. I'm hoping to see a popular website use it.
Q: What has SUIT taught you in your career of programming? A:When I started with SUIT, I was very novice in programming. Although I had many ideas, I didn't necessarily know how to execute them. I've learned about document trees, stacks, recursive functions, and believe it or not, classes, although this wasn't my first OOP project. The funny thing is that I taught myself recursive functions before I knew classes existed.
Q: This question is asked a lot, but I see it is worth mentioning. If you were to start suit from scratch again, what would you do differently? A:The only thing I would change would be the Admin Area, as it would have been programmed with all the features I have today, instead of fixing up a year old code with a new framework. Also, if I knew all I knew today, it certainly wouldn't have taken a year. If you study the older versions (God help you), you'll see that the philosophy changed often, and hopefully it will continue to evolve, hopefully with influence from the community to come.
Q: As you know, I hate PHP with all of my innermost strength and wish it would just be eradicated from all existence. So this brings me to ask, hopeful of a positive answer: Will the SUIT API be ported to other interpreted programming languages? A:When I started with SUIT, I was very novice in programming. Although I had many ideas, I didn't necessarily know how to execute them. I've learned about document trees, stacks, recursive functions, and believe it or not, classes, although this wasn't my first OOP project. The funny thing is that I taught myself recursive functions before I knew classes existed.
Q: Development has been going on for about a year already, so that must mean development has been rigorous. What functionality of SUIT was the most difficult to implement of all? Which bug was the most difficult for you to solve? A:I wouldn't say any one functionality, once planned out, was difficult to implement. The hardest part was getting there, which I must thank many for. It also did not help to realize that some functionalities were impossible. Most bugs that were difficult to solve were stupid typos, which hopefully the Debug System will help prevent for the future. If it counts, the hardest thing to prevent from happening was not allowing an infinite loop to occur with templates. I extremely over-thought it, and so it seemed for anyone who was approached with the problem, but when it was solved, I was kicking myself for a good week.
There you have it. I hope that those who do use SUIT in the future find that it fits their needs in regards to web development. Put the philosophy of the system to good use, and abolish the need for shitty templating systems. The world is better off without these bloated excuses for templating, and you know it.
Also, here's an early download, courtesy of yours truly. SUIT is meant to be placed outside of your /public_html directory for better measure, but if you don't mind people looking at your code and possibly exploiting it, then that's up to you. The SUIT core is seldom updated, so there is no real "version" for SUIT in this case. TIE does, however, have version numbers.
Brandon Evans Posted on Tuesday, 28. July 2009 12:00 AM
No leaking for you. ;)