Why I started with pure PHP
I wanted to understand how routing, controllers, and views actually fit together before relying on a framework.
What I learned
- separating request handling from templates makes the code easier to change
- simple conventions matter more than clever abstractions at the start
- once the structure is clear, moving to Laravel feels much more intentional
The takeaway
Building a small MVC stack by hand gave me a much better mental model for the frameworks I use now.