Large frameworks aren't always and universally suitable for everyone and everything!
I borrowed the title from the Manifesto of Miniature PHP, which I would happily sign electronically, if I had a digital signature. Although the argument about counting lines is unfair and debatable, I understand what the author was trying to say. On Zdroják, I wrote a comment that I eventually decided to immortalize here on the blog:
I often make simple websites, which I write entirely in “notepad”, and I want the code to have no more lines than is absolutely necessary. Uploading a several-megabyte framework for a 20kB website, including styles, to a hosting service is out of the question.
Yet, even in these simple websites, I want to use solutions that are available in Nette, and I don't want to give up the comfort I'm used to. I am a lazy programmer. For this reason, the Nette Framework can be used as a micro-framework.
An example would be appropriate. Just yesterday, I redesigned https://davidgrudl.com and made the source code available (check the top left corner), purely for inspiration to others on how I handle such a microsite. The entire PHP code of the website is contained in a single file, index.php, which is, I believe, understandable, although perhaps less so for the uninitiated. The rest are templates. And the framework is uploaded in the minified form of a single file, which, along with the fact that it's about twice the size of jQuery, overcomes the psychological block of “not wanting to upload a whole framework.”
Or take the example of a blog found directly in the distribution. Its source code is also just index.php, with even fewer lines than the previous example. Everything else is templates, see https://github.com/…ta/templates.
Perhaps I should explain why I actually use a framework on tiny websites.
Mainly, today I cannot imagine programming without Tracy, which then logs errors on the
production server (although they are unlikely with a static website). But
I primarily use the Latte templating
system because, starting from just 2 pages, I want to separate layout and
content, I like Latte’s concise syntax, and I rely on its automatic
escaping. I also use routing, because simply
wanting URLs without .php extensions can only be set up correctly
by God himself.
In the first mentioned website, caching is also used for Twitter
feeds, and on the blog, a database
layer is utilized. And there’s also a Nette SEO trick, which
automatically prevents the known error of moving forwards and backwards through
pagination and landing on the same page, only to have it haunted in the URL by
page=1.
Nette also ensures that if there is an error, no PHP programming error messages are displayed, but rather a user-understandable page. And also autoloading – I've come to take it for granted so much that I would have completely forgotten to mention it.
Of course, I sometimes add a contact form and have it send emails. Now I realize that I actually use 90% of the framework.
That's how I create quick'n'dirty websites and that's how I enjoy it 😉
See also: How to write micro-websites