So I am now in San Francisco.

I'm here on an internship, doing more web development! But instead of Python/Django, it's PHP/Zend. You'd think it would be a pretty easy transition from one MVC web framework to another, but that was not the case! For one thing, Django's cute little ORM spoiled me:(

Zend is a very powerful tool with great libraries, but that fact is not easily recognizable to a beginner. For those who want to get the gist of this framework by running through the QuickStart, good luck to you. Really. I've also been spoiled by Django's amazing Tutorial and Documentation. The QuickStart changed drastically over the last two weeks, due to the new Zend release. This should be good news, except, it's still unfinished. Yes, STILL. The last QuickStart guide had typos, left out information, and didn't use hypertext to its full potential:P Meaning, it was confusing, and you needed to delve into the heavy Zend Documentation to get a simple question answered. And yes, the new QuickStart guide is no better. It is shorter (...yay? I guess. A win for the impatient), but does not hold enough information. It just tells you what SOME lines of code do and what the Zend parser looks for, but it doesn't really go much into depth. It barely even scratches the surface. And there are still chunks of text missing (scroll to the bottom). So yeah. Have fun, beginners! :P

My recommendation to a beginner is, yes, run through the QuickStart, but don't expect many answers to it. All I really learned about Zend from the QuickStart was information regarding what Zend needs to know to parse code properly, and the structure of a normal web application. The real magic lies in the Zend library. I started playing with Zend_Db at work, and it's a pretty good tool. Try using the Zend_Db alone without a Mapper for one of your models. It will be a fun learning exercise that will help shape your Zend and database/querying skills. If you're a beginner to web development and are looking for a friendly, quick way to start a website, my recommendation to you is to skip PHP/Zend and check out Django. It's prettier and the docs are nicer. But maybe that's just my superficiality talking.

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