On the TutsPlus.com site today they've posted an opinion article that tries to help answer the question "Should You Use a PHP Framework?". They provide their own list of top five pros and cons, representing each side and hopefully getting you thinking about your own project.

From routing HTTP requests to accessing the database and rendering the user interface, most web applications have a lot in common with each other. Many of them allow their visitors to sign in, and it's hard to imagine a web application without email sending. A software framework is a way to put this observation into use.

But is using a framework always the best way to go, or does it sometimes make sense just to start from scratch using nothing but plain PHP? To answer the question, in this tutorial, we will look at five pros and cons of using a PHP framework.

Items under their "pros" list include how they allow for more rapid development, easier maintenance in the future and the support of the community around the project. Their "cons" list talks about topics like the more general approach most frameworks take, the lower level of performance vs just PHP and the limited visibility into how the core framework works where it's not supposed to be customized.

In this post to his site Djordje Kovacevic shares the results of his evaluation of hosting providers in the platform-as-a-service arena for hosting PHP applications: OpenShift, Heroku and Fortrabbit.

I want PHP 5.6+, so I did some basic testing of those services to pick cheep and good solution to host my blog. OpenShift because I use it and it's free for 3 small gears, it was pretty good solution few years ago. Heroku because I used it for Ruby on Rails projects and they support multiple languages (even multiple build packs for one project)! I used FortRabbit too, so I decided to test theirs new apps.

For his testing he used a simple Laravel (v5.2) application with a handful of routes - something simple just to test out the setup and deployment processes. There is a "tl;dr" of the results but he also gets a bit more in-depth on what each service has to offer and some of the pros and cons of each. He also includes the results of some basic performance testing on the instances, linking to the raw output if you'd like to run your own metrics against it.

The SitePoint PHP blog has a new post that weighs the pros and cons of getting the Zend PHP Certification. The Zend Certified PHP Engineer is described as "a measure of distinction that employers use to evaluate prospective employees".

As a PHP developer, you may have been asking yourself how to improve your skills, gain reputation or become more professional in your work. One of the ways of doing so is to get through a certification programme. The only one that covers PHP itself (not a particular framework or software solution) is being delivered by the Zend company. In the remainder of the article I will focus on this particular certificate and describe its advantages and disadvantages. At the end I will also mention some other certification programs that may be valuable to a PHP developer.

He starts with a bit of general information about the certification including some of the categories it covers. He then gets into the pros and cons, listing two items for each. He suggests that it's a good way to measure your knowledge but there is a question of how much it really proves to get a passing score.

In this recent post to the SitePoint PHP blog Bruno Skvorc compares two technologies that have influence how PHP performs - the HHVM (HipHop Virtual Machine) and the Zend Engine in PHP6 - and the potential replacement of one with the other.

The fabled PHP 6 is long overdue. This unicorn of the web dev world has been “coming” for decades now, and it’s still not clear whether or not it’s actually something that’s going to happen in this decade, or just an idea, a fantasy of the PHP userbase. [...] In the latest edition [of the PHPClasses podcast] between Manuel Lemos and César Rodas, an interesting topic arose among others – Facebook’s HHVM replacing Zend Engine in PHP 6. While this was purely speculation on the part of the participants, and whether or not you believe in PHP 6, you have to admit it’s an interesting notion.

He starts with a look at the overall pros of the HHVM solution - the speed of execution, that it's backed by Facebook and its support for static typing. There's some cons that come with the HHVM though, including not allowing custom extensions, that it's developed by Facebook (yes, this can be a con too) and that there are other ways to enhance PHP's execution speed without sacrificing other functionality.

In this new post to DZone.com, Giorgio Sironi kicks off a series that looks at reusable components in the PHP development world. In this first post of that series he looks at the Symfony console component .

Symfony is one of the most popular open source PHP frameworks on the market. The Symfony Components, however, are loosely coupled projects that can be reused as a library outside of an application based on Symfony. The component this article explores is Console (symfony/console on Packagist and GitHub), dedicated to quickly build console applications.

He goes on to talk about some of the "pros" of using the component (including built-in argument/input handing and multiple "commands") and some of the "cons" of is use (including its size and some of the built-in features you can't really work around).

In this new post to Reddit, a poster asks for opinions on the Laravel framework:

t seems to be the hot framework this year, straight out of the oven, and into the hands of many bloggers who religiously swear by it. I've been using it for a few weeks and have formed my own opinion on it.

He lists some his own pros (easy to learn, good routing) and cons (still very news, smaller community and support sources) and asks for thoughts from other users of the framework. Comments include things like:

• One of the downsides to laravel seems to be that it's an extremely fast moving target (in comparison to most other frameworks out there).
• Lack of contract / freelance work out there for it, and having to use the irc channel for support, where you can be somewhat overlooked if you ask beginner questions.
• It's a nice enough framework that leaves a bad taste in my mouth due to all the buzzwords used to describe it. Beautiful, artisan, fluid, etc etc. One word I hardly ever hear is utilitarian.
• My primary need as a developer at this point is stability. I simply can't bother with a package this new and unsupported, even if it is positively fantastic.

There's comments going both ways - some in support of the framework (including one of the authors of it) and some with their criticisms. What do you think of this new framework on the block - share here!

Iwan Luijks has a recent post to his blog trying to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions about becoming a certified ZCE through Zend's testing. He also includes some of the benefits of having the certification to go with your name.

In the community of PHP developers there are more non-certified professionals than certified professionals. PHP developers mostly don't really see the pro's of getting certified. These developers mostly honor the fact that PHP is a quick and easy language to learn and to get started with, and professionalism is found even by building a simple dynamic web page, leaving the discussion of whether this is a good or bad thing for what it is.

He talks about the confidence it can give current (and future) employers in your skill level and let them know you're the kind that keeps on learning/improving in your career. It also lets them know that you're dedicated enough to learn what you need to pass and can put it into practice easier in the future.

In a new episode of the Voices of the ElePHPant podcast, Cal Evans has taken a break from the normal "Three Questions" format of the podcast so far and has instead posted an discussion about recruiters. Brandon Savage and Scott Gordon talk about the pros and cons of working with recruiters.

Once I read [Brandon's post on why recruiters are bad for your career], I knew that I needed to get Brandon, and another friend of mine, Scott Gordon – a recruiter for Vaco and serious social media bad-ass – together to discuss some of the points Brandon brought out. I shuld probably point out that while Scott is a recruiter, he is not your typical recruiter. He regularly talks about the shortcomings of his industry and he works to make things better.

As always, you can listen to this latest episode either via the in-page player, by downloading the mp3 or by subscribing to their feed.

Chris Roane has shared some of his thoughts on PHP, both the good and the bad (and its future) in the latest post to his blog.

People have different opinions in what they think is the best web programming language for certain tasks. Speed, ease of use, flexibility, learning curve, popularity and feature list are a few criteria you can use in "judging" a programming language.

He notes that, while PHP is a powerful tool to write web applications in, it is by no means the only (or best) way to do it for all situations. He suggests, thought, that for the longevity of your business and the future of your applications as a whole, you go with something like PHP that has a good solid community and is in constant development to make it and its features better.

On the php|architect blog there's a recent post from Jayesh Wadhwani asking a question developers all over the world wonder every day - to use a framework or not to (and what's the benefit)?

A framework is usually thought of or defined as an underlying structure. You could imagine a wooden structure, sort of a skeleton when a house is being built. This provides a guide, structure and flow to build the house. A programming framework pretty much does the same thing. A programming framework provides for a structured and disciplined programming which results in a more consistent output from a programming team.

He talks more about some of the things that come with framework use like the utility and "housekeeping" code as well as code you know has been tested and used by other projects successfully (especially with something like the Zend Framework. Remember, though, there's bad that comes with them - a possible steep learning curve and overhead that could be caused by using the tools it gives you badly.