Yeah, it seems mature and stable enough, and maybe because i’m in process of learning RoR now, that Akelos’ claim of being “port of RoR in PHP languange” make more sense than before.

Why am i interested in Akelos ? There are several other PHP frameworks that claim to be “inspired by” or “ports of RoR” namely CakePHP, CodeIgniter ( inspired ones ) and PHP on Trax ( port ).

I’ve been using CodeIgniter for a while and like it so far, because it has great documentation, lightweight, and easy to extend, although as many other PHP frameworks, it tends to get hairy if the developer gets too excited or plain too old fashioned to adhere to MVC concept. the lack of automation and claim of being small, lightweight freeform MVC framework in CodeIgniter is likely the cause of such failure to enforce MVC separation and reuseability ( or DRY ). I don’t blame the creator, actually i like CI very much because it cuts a significant portion of my work on particular project, make everything so fast, and above all, fun.

After i tried Akelos however, i got more excited, because it has the same ease of use of CI, at least in terms of requirements, like it works in PHP4 and PHP5, the package is easy to install, through SVN and downloadable package, and self contained, it doesn’t get stranded to PEAR ( like PHP on Trax ). Personally i don’t like PEAR because i’ve encounter too much trouble setting up on many different kind of machine ( Windows, Linux, and now OS X ).

With the bonus of Rails like automation, like generator, migration, etc. which doesn’t currently exist in CI, Akelos should be fun to work with, after all , it is a port of Rails. So i think i will take a closer look at it, maybe it could become a good learning tool on Rails concepts. I know PHP for a long time , then it’s a bit hard to switch lane to Ruby, learning RoR using Akelos should be a logical way to gradually move to pure RoR world.

Mind you, I’m not into language / framework war, for me it’s just another language and another framework. I use them accordingly depending on my particular needs, so i don’t scrap one for another, but i simply put them in my personal toolbox to use any of them as required.

The reason i don’t pick CakePHP is because it’s a whole different kind of framework although it has many of good features of RoR ( automation with bake, ORM, etc ). PHP on Trax, hmm, PEAR, so i think i’ll pass. I pass on other PHP frameworks too because they are PHP5 only, which is not good for the moment since my servers are still running PHP4, although they have great features too.

So, Akelos should be good enough now, although I don’t think it will match RoR fame, but it will become a fresh breath of air on PHP world, particularly in this moment where PHP gets mocked as inferior than Ruby or Python ( or other languages by fact ). Other thing is I actually like the modest attitude of Bermi Ferrer, Akelos’ creator. DHH is just simply irritating, but i still respect him as a great programmer.