Early 2015, I was searching for a PHP framework that is light, modern in features and would easily install on a shared host without no out of the box support. You know what I mean? Light in weight, just extract to the server and see happiness. I have noticed advanced developers are having this same issues more these days because I have heard more than two friends asking for a light weight framework and would still be badass. I will recommend Pop PHP for you if you are reading this.

I was working on an open source project and I can't start writing a framework all over again, it is not just best to re-invent the wheel. This was a difficult search, I know what I was watching out for in my search, and it is either a good framework is bloated out or a light framework is a micro framework. I was on making this vital decision when I came across a PHP framework called Pop. It was funny as at the time I knew Pop, there was no standard documentation for it, so I have to dig into the framework's core to understand what is happening. I found the framework so interesting and enlightening.

Funny enough, Pop PHP has been around close to 10 years and it has been evolving with PHP. The framework has really grown now and you can be sure that you have a responsive community behind it. The community around it is small though. I am reaching out to you too to join the foot soldier.

In one of those days I needed some clarification, this was how I got to know the man behind the lovely framework. His name is Nick Sagona, he is a brilliant engineer. Soft spoken person and someone with so much patience. He knows what he knows, he is badass. We have been a good friend for a while now, we discuss family, work, and life. He is in a band (he even talk about his music works more than his development works on social media). He puts his family first and he is just awesome with his works. I feel it is nice I show him to my friends and what he does. Here is the man behind Pop PHP.

In the effort to showcase more of my good developer friends, I planned to have a series where I ask them important questions (at most five) developers want to know and allow them to also ask me their questions (at least two).

Nick and Alex

1. What has been your biggest achievement with Pop PHP and what keeps the fire burning about the project for you?

The biggest achievement with Pop at this point has to be the application I've built for the job I'm at now. It was actually a 4-year process that had a lot of curveballs thrown at it, the biggest of which at about 2 years into it, a large national company wanted to be about to integrate into the application via an API. It’s definitely the largest DB I’ve worked on... probably getting close to a total of 1M and above records among all of the tables but the thing that "keeps the fire burning" is that during the course of building the application over the past 4 years Pop was allowed to grow to what it is today and it keeps growing... just last night I was working on what will become I guess v2.5 or maybe even v3. The secondary part of everything I've done with Pop is also Phire, the CMS I built with it. While it isn't really widely adopted at this point, I still have some pride in it, know that a few people and offices use it and seem to really like it. And of course along with all of this, working on Pop and Phire and where I'm at with the new job. I think the thing that really drives me and probably a lot of us is learning constantly, learning new things, trying to keep up with what's out there...and I'm excited about where it's going, PHP 7 and all of that seems PHP has enjoyed a bit of an uptick or renaissance the past year or so.

2. Time is the biggest asset in programming. How do you manage your time, combining family, work, your musical band and side gigs Do you have a methodology you use?

I get asked that a lot. Number one, having the support from my wife to do the things I love, which does take a lot of me time. So that's the first thing there but for a while there, over the past few years, there would be stretches of time where I would make time by simply staying up late, reading, learning, writing code, working on my projects, whether personal or contract so it was like pulling a second shift. I'd work from 9am to 5pm at my marketing job, then come home, spend time with the family for a couple of hours, everyone would go to bed and I'd hover over my computer from like 9pm to 1am or 2am or even later sometimes and if I wasn't doing that, I'd be carving out some time for music, either band practice or just playing/practicing on my own.

2.1 Is there a methodology you use or you just pick the tasks the way they come?

Not really, but I think I naturally or subconsciously hit a point where I come up for air and go "wow, I've really been working a lot on coding the past few weeks... I need to shift back over to music for a little while" or vice versa.

I think it's the natural push and pull between the left and right sides of my brain... lol I've always considered myself fairly balanced between wanting to do creative right brain stuff and also wanting to do interesting code/data/analytical left brain stuff

Nick playing guitar

3. Is there any similarity between music and programming that you have discovered? Have you used any of your programming skill to solve a domestic/family issue before? If yes what is the problem you solved?

Well, I haven't really applied any programming skills to anything on the home front that I know of... but for music... music to me is a universal language and is pretty amazing that it is so creative and expressive and then at the same time is so mathematical and analytical

So there's a set of rules or guidelines in music to write and play music that sounds good... and you're constantly pushing and bending those rules to try and create something original

3.1 Please explain the mathematics in music

Well, there's simple math... timing/rhythm... but time signatures can get pretty complex 4/4, 6/8, 7/8, 7/4, 9/8, 12/8 etc. 11's 13's weird stuff like that. It's almost like applying the idea of fractions to a space of time and being able to do that correctly and in time, is not easy, especially for the more complex time signatures then there's pitch & frequency and all the things that go in music theory chords, scales, modes, what works together, what doesn't and why there's mathematical reasons based on frequencies, and the rest of why certain notes and chords sound good together and certain ones don't. So on the fly (if you're improvising or writing an original piece) you have to figure which notes/chords and the rest fit best for the mood and tone of the piece your writing.

4. If you are to wish for just one thing in three categories of life, what will it be (One for your family, one for your career, and last one about the world)?

So family - I wish for long life, health and happiness.

Career - I wish that things at this new job continue to go in the direction that I feel like they going (which is in a very positive direction)

and World - holy cow, we need some serious peace and respect amongst everyone like ASAP, way too much negative stuff going on right now... it's very sad and disheartening (and I'm usually a pretty positive person)

5. What can you say about me?

Well, I definitely appreciate our paths crossing and you taking an interest in Pop. It helps to develop it further. And I appreciate your passion for programming as well. Plus it's always cool to have conversations with people in other parts of the world, you know, get things from their perspective.

From left: Rasmus Lerdorf (the creator of PHP scripting language), Ralph Schindler and Nick Sagona during NOLA PHP Meetup 12/2010

Here are Nick's questions

1. How long have you been programming in PHP? And what drew you to it?
I have been programming PHP since 2004. I find PHP easy coming from Java background. I love PHP because you don't need so much configuration to get it started. I read and started using PHP in just 2 weeks so I find it more natural.

The language has grown over the years and I am happy to have seen it grown from the days of PHP 4.0. It is also impressive to have those other cool features we've used in other languages and their frameworks gradually finding their way into PHP.

2. What drew you to Pop PHP? And which components do you use the most?

I came across Pop PHP when I was in dire need of a PHP framework that is light and has new features found in the modern framework. I have used CodeIgniter extensively before I moved to FuelPHP, I used Nette for a while, used Laravel for few projects and I used Phalcon for more than a year so I needed something close to Phalcon because I love the structure and philosophy (where I can define my structure).

I can't remember how I came across Pop PHP but the first time I saw it and went through the base code I fell in love because it is what I have been looking for. I almost started writing my own framework because other frameworks I have used has not hit that convenience I wanted in a framework. The same feeling I had when I saw Modx, was the same thing I experienced when I discovered Pop PHP. The code base is easy to understand and whenever I found a feature I have missed in other frameworks you are always there to add them. You even go beyond what I expected.

The component I am currently using most is PopCorn to develop my API for an application I am working on. One of the best thing that interests me about Pop is the set of libraries that is shipped with it, you rarely have a framework with payment and shipping adapters. In terms of performance, Pop PHP is really great compared to other frameworks I have used. I am also impressed how fast Pop PHP easily supports PHP7.

You have been a great support to this framework and I am happy I am part of the community.

Then Nick said “...there's been a few here and there that have contributed 1 or 2 things ... but no true "evangelist" until you, I find it interesting that you use Popcorn so much I didn't know if it would have much interest out there”

Contact Nick -> Facebook | Twitter | Github | LinkedIn