After the publication of my last blog post, there was quite a hoohah from within the PHP community. I think that some mistakes and issues need to be addressed. 

I got into programming because of the awesome power available at your fingertips, to me it’s the closest thing to magic we have, we write lines of code and our imaginings are brought to life. Oh the creativity! That remarkable sensation of satisfaction when solving a problem and it working as you expected.

I’m sure, many developers started their journey in the same manner and for the same reason. Through the very tools they had the skill to build programmers could connect, share and collaborate. Creating digital melting pots of international communities sharing ideas and working together to create cybernetic wonders. 

I’m of the belief that the ‘amateur’ is the foundation of any community. The dabbler, who explores for the pure joy of the process and love of the craft. As Charlie Chaplin said “That's all any of us are: amateurs. We don't live long enough to be anything else.”

I’m convinced that ideas win, not ego or status. A couple years ago, I was training a developer and I asked him to do a task evolving cloning objects, he then came up with a far superior approach. I was given a choice to either acknowledge and accept his idea was better than mine or shut him down to preserve the status quo and my ego. 

Whether an idea comes from a complete novice or an expert is completely irrelevant, I choose to judge the idea on its merits, not the person or their credentials. 

I think it is this spirit that I admire from the Laravel community, that we can all learn from one another, regardless of your position. Just as I admire the dedication to quality and correctness from the Symfony community. Both have something to learn from one another. 

Honestly, I regret the post title, it was accentuating a gap where there is little, both Symfony and Laravel are fantastic tools invented from the aforementioned spirit of collaboration and curiosity. This is why I have changed the title and I acknowledge my tone was antagonistic and unhelpful. I will of course, use both framework in the future. 

That being said, I stand by the content of the article. It was not out of a misunderstanding or lack of knowledge, It came from experience of working with the framework and building complex systems with it and in turn understanding its limitations and acknowledging it has them, like all systems. 

It is clear there is much passion in the PHP community, this is commendable and we must stand by our convictions. But let us not forget the amateur spirit and work together to improve ourselves and the tools we build.

I hope to meet you all at conferences and talks so we can discuss and share ideas. Happy coding!