I wanted to ask the developers/community, what are their thoughts on the future of CodeIgniter? Maybe what we can look forward to in new versions or in the next update/release?
It would be good to know if there will be more development done on CodeIgniter, and how big /extended will it get.
I’m really looking forward to the next version of CI. I seem to recall someone from EllisLab saying that they thought the next version of CI could possibly be out before EE 2.0. Crossing my fingers!
I don’t think it’s an unlikely scenario. Give the geeks, us, something to sink their teeth in to discover bugs they could have overlooked. More eyes on new stuff is always a good thing.
To be honest, I doubt it. EE is still their commercial product, after all, and they would want to get that out ASAP. Since it’s entirely written in CI, though, there should be a few enhancements and perhaps new classes as well. Interesting times, gentlemen
These were my inital thoughts on the matter. I think that CI will get more features, but since EE is moduler (as far as I know), we won’t see all that much in CI. When you think about it, any improvement is good. I just hope that more libraries get added, although this does not mean that CI has to be bloated. The libraries could be optional, as in we download them if we need to. Maybe a MooTools style download?
Adding libraries doesn’t make the framework bloated because they are only loaded when you load them yourself. The bloat comes from functions that are only useful in certain cases. For instance if there are US oriented rules added to the validation library.
Its not unreasonable that CI will continue to get updates as we work on EE. CI probably will get a release first. As for the (legitimate) bloat issue that Milos raises, that and a few other things are discussed in ExpressionEngine 2.0: fully CodeIgnited!, but I will say that more libraries does not, and cannot hurt performance, as they are loaded on demand by you. The only thing they do is take up more diskspace
Its not unreasonable that CI will continue to get updates as we work on EE. CI probably will get a release first. As for the (legitimate) bloat issue that Milos raises, that and a few other things are discussed in ExpressionEngine 2.0: fully CodeIgnited!, but I will say that more libraries does not, and cannot hurt performance, as they are loaded on demand by you. The only thing they do is take up more diskspace
It would be nice to have the extra libraries, BUT (yes, there is always a but) if we could maybe have access to some kind of system where we can pick what we want in our setup? Too much to ask for?
About CI 2, will it be PHP5 only? More OOP power? Will there be a huge overhaul of the framework (ie. structure), or will things remain in a general fashion as they currently are, except for maybe a few additions and changes? If I were to start a project using CI’s current version, would it be easy for me to make the transition to CI 2? Or would I have to change and fix up a lot of code?
CI 2 ??? I think next version will be 1.6.3 or maybe 1.7. Don’t expect too many changes in the near future.
They were talking about looking into changing the validation and pagination library. The developers at Ellislab are not so keen on creating a non backward compatible version, i think because nobody likes to see apps/sites break caused by an update of the tool they use.
I’m not sure I reflect the sentiment that the next CI release won’t be big. I think a lot of things are changing, and for the better. The mantra is “if EE needs it, CI gets it.” Imagine what EE needs!
I would say that right now, CI is a strong framework to be invested in. People don’t love it because it necessarily does everything imaginable. People love it because of the way it does things.
And think about this: EE is EllisLab’s flagship product, and they have made the decision to grow it upon CI. If it’s good enough that they will build the future of their business (capital and reputation) upon it, don’t you think it’s good enough for you?
One of the people at Ellislab mentioned EE2 is using stock CI for the most part. It would be stupid to base EE2 on a framework that will get a big overhaul, and as we know people at Ellislab aren’t stupid.
I think the slogan is a look beyond the initial EE2 release. Now they will have a lot of work to get EE out of the door as a stable application.
I like CI because it’s a low threshold framework. You can build your knowledge by working with it. Seeing the good and bad sides and try to come up with ways to improve it. I don’t want framework developers to hold my hand while i’m playing with it. I think that is why people who like CI like the ZEND framework too. And the Symfony developers understand it too.
Back on topic now i would welcome a big overhaul but i keep my expectations to a minimum for the pre EE2 release. CI is still a framework other applications than a CMS can be based on so introducing CMS features to the framework would be the wrong way to go.
edit : EE is also a forum and wiki as mentioned in the footer, my mistake
I don’t normally get involved in these sort of discussions but i must say i’m intrigued how they have done it / doing it.
I’ll admit that i haven’t had much of a look at EE’s codebase so i may not be the best to make these judgements, but i wonder how they are going go handle it all. I know CI is based on a lot of EE libs but i still think it can’t be that simple. I wonder if there is some form of abstraction layer inbetween CI and EE to enable them to work happily together.
I would love to know how it is done, sort of the same way how i wonder how some magic tricks are done.
i’m not sure what kind of things you think EE can do. It’s just an application like the ones you are developing. EE is not some magical beast that flies through the sun
If i put my black hat on i’m wondering how they are going to prevent people from using pieces of EE in order to circumvent buying a license, if you look at an app you can’t see its guts. I think it will be more temping for low budget developers to do this sort of thing once EE is based on CI.
