什么放在composer.json

Question

I understand that the title is not the best, but come on.

We have several tools that help in developing an application with PHP, as PHPUnit, PHPMD, PHP Depend, PHP Doc, and so on.

For example, I know that PHPUnit is essential in the require-dev, but what puzzles me is, for example, PHPCPD is a simple tool that helps us verify repeated codes in the application. PHP Documentator is a tool that generates documentation for the application.

I wonder, is it really necessary clog the composer.json with all these tools or have to separate some with composer.json and the other with the pear?.

Thank you all.

Answer 1

This is a question of how to create a development environment. This is also a question of how a software gets deployed. In fact, there are so many individual influences - there can be no single correct answer.

Answer these:

How does a new developer start into your project? How long will it take him to run your test suite on a new machine? Which decisions about the development environment do you want to make instead of the new developer?

If you say that any new developer should install his IDE, webserver, tools on his own, and your project only provides the environment to be able to run PHPUnit (i.e. include the version that is compatible with your test classes) - and everything else, including code analysis etc. is sugar on top, but not necessary, then it is ok to not include these dependencies.

But if you want to actually enforce coding style, good software architecture, and fight code duplication, you better make it easy for everyone to submit new code, and check for himself whether the new code is correctly written and not violating the rules.