Dilemma: Do I use a Framework or learn Patterns by doing myself?

[socceroos]

I've been a PHP developer for about 6 years now - the last two years I have been pretty inactive though. Just recently though, I have been reading resources on all the different programming patterns (Factory, Singleton, Registry, Observer, etc) to try and get my head around good programming techniques.

 

For myself though I find that I can only truly understand how these methods work when I am forced to do them myself.

 

I have a large project I am doing at my workplace (me only) that involves building a very complex PHP application.

 

I would like to know your professional opinion; should I spend the extra time to program this PHP application myself and really, properly learn all these different programming patterns? Or, should I just build on top of a PHP framework like the Zend Framework for speed's sake (and flexibility/features)?

 

I have found understanding exactly how the Zend Framework works hard, just because I haven't been exposed to using these programming patterns myself. I hate that - I want to fully understand exactly what is happening in my application and know exactly how each part relates to others.

 

Thanks in advance!

[xtopolis]

This is a PHP focused book that brings to light some of the patterns out there:

PHP Patterns, Objects, Practice by Matt Zandstra

 

The author also recommends other resources for learning patterns.  I recommend you go to a book store and look through it to see if it might help you.  Afaik, a framework won't teach you about patterns..

[socceroos]

Thanks for the info xtopolis.

 

I'm reading through a book called "PHP Architect's Guide To PHP Design Patterns (2005)". The code examples feel a little old, but the explanations seem pretty good. But as I hinted at earlier - I find the concepts hard to grasp unless I'm actually doing it myself.

 

I agree that frameworks aren't teaching me. I can see that they're using many patterns - but aren't familiar enough with them myself to fully understand what is going on. As such, I feel that perhaps I should be creating this application by myself without the help of a framework just so I can improve my knowledge and learn about patterns through doing it (will include trial and error).

 

I guess my biggest fear is making really bad design choices. I don't want to have to do *huge* code re-factoring because I've totally stuffed up the implementation and limited myself in the process.

[Ken2k7]

Why can't you do a little of both? Multi-tasking not your thing?

[socceroos]

Ken2k7, I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to but multi-tasking isn't one of my strong points.

 

Finding the free time - outside of work - to both read about patterns whilst writing my own application and also using a framework for another application would be hard.

 

I guess there's no easy answer - I'll just have to suck it up and spend a number of weekends hammering away at this.

 

Thanks for your answers guys.