I came over this old question on StackOverflow: "Which PHP Framework will get me to a usable UI the fastest?" I couldn't help but wonder, why people are not aware of all those other PHP UI frameworks? There are few, right? If you google for "php ui" you can find them. Those are more generally referred to as UI toolkits. But why those toolkits are not known in the mainstream?

He notes that most of the major frameworks leave you out to dry when it comes to presentation. They don't include much in the way of interface helpers in the name of modularity and backend focus. He suggests a few reasons why this happens and why the UI frameworks out there haven't made it to the mainstream. He gives three rules that could help this situation: view and object handling, giving developers a way to extend things easily and knowing the limitations of what the framework can do.

Physical interfaces such as button panels or remote controls have many disadvantages. Panel controls require a dedicated display for feedback and physical access to a fixed location. IR remote controls offer only one-way communication with limited feedback and can become difficult to manage for multiple devices. [...] We propose a new type of solution to address these issues and bring simplified management and control to a broader market through embedded virtual interfaces.

He lays out the structure of the application, some of the issues that could come up in the connection (using COMET and Websockets). His proof of concept is a connection to a HDMI switch that can be talked to through an embedded controller via a simple interface.

Over the last few days I got the chance to skim through the upcoming Manning release "PHP in Action: Modern Software Practices for PHP" by Dagfinn Reiersøl et al. The reviewed book is seperated into four main parts, covering lots of interesting topics in a good and fluent writing style.

Raphael outlines the book, mentioning the four parts the book is divided up into:

• Basic PHP tools and concepts
• Developing applications via Test Driven Development
• Web presentation and user interfaces
• Object-oriented development including things like database abstraction