[FLOW3-general] How similar are TYPO3 Flow and Symfony2?

[Robert Lemke]

Hi Roland,

On 23.10.2012, at 21:09, Roland <most.wanted at gmx.at> wrote:

> maybe some of you read this tweet today:
> 
> --- quote ---
> It's no longer wise to have Flow when Symfony2 is so similar it's painful
> to watch. [...]
> --- /quote ---
> 
> what's your opinion on that - is TYPO3 Flow really that similar to Symfony2
> - not only in regards to how you build appications but also under the hood?


Symfony2 and Flow are probably the two most modern PHP application frameworks.
Because they follow certain design patterns and development principles, they might
look similar (hey, legible code!).

The security framework of both frameworks was inspired by Spring, but in detail are
quite differently implemented.

Flow uses compontens of Symfony and on the other hand, some core features in Symfony 2
were inspired by Flow (as Lukas Smith said at a PHP conference in Berlin this year). Both

If I was to put it into short statements, I'd describe the differences somewhat like this:

SF2 is the "you can pick what you need and even build your own framework" framework.
Flow is the "we've prepared a concept, techniques, deployment and architecture so you can
concentrate on the job and start right away" framework

SF2 is the "you can but also have to configure everything" framework
Flow is the "sensible defaults through code analysis" framework

SF2 says that the model, persistence etc. is your job to take care of.
Flow gives you flexibility with the model (also based on Doctrine) but pushes you to follow and
makes it very easy to use the principles of Domain-Driven Design.

If you've worked with worked with both, you'll note bigger differences and then choose the tool
fitting best to your development style. I've trained various developers on Flow who had Symfony 2
experience and their feedback was along the lines of what I wrote above.

Cheers,
Robert

-- 
Robert Lemke
Lead Developer TYPO3 Neos and TYPO3 Flow
Co-Founder TYPO3 Association

Blog: robertlemke.com/blog
Get involved: typo3.org – flow.typo3.org – neos.typo3.org