This page will provide you with information and answers to common and uncommon questions about
Rabbit.
What is Rabbit?
Rabbit is an application development framework. It allows you to develop applications in a certain
way.
What applications can I develop using Rabbit?
Not everything. Rabbit limits you in what you can develop. It's designed for specific purposes and
according to specific needs. It is oriented around web-based applications (but also allows for other
types of applications) and its design is very much geared towards the web. In the territory of web
applications, it can be used for a lot of things, but not everything. It's useful for things that
you commonly see on the web, such as forum web sites, photo uploading web sites, social networks,
and web mail. It's also useful for things that are less common on the web. Sometimes Rabbit may not
be useful for your application. You may still be able to use it. You shouldn't use it if it'll make
your life harder than easier.
What programming language is Rabbit written in?
Rabbit is written in PHP 5.2.
What programming languages can I use Rabbit with?
You can develop applications that utilize Rabbit only in PHP 5.2.
Can I use PHP 5.0 or 5.1?
Maybe. You can try it and find out on your own. Rabbit has only been tested with PHP 5.2. If you do,
let us know. Please note that PHP 5.0 and 5.1 are not supported. This means that you shouldn't be
reporting bugs or asking questions about using Rabbit in these versions of PHP.
Can I use PHP 4?
No. Rabbit utilizes many features of PHP 5 that are not available in PHP 4, such as reflection, type
hinting, overloading object attributes, interfaces, and new-style constructors. PHP 4 is not
supported by Rabbit. This means that you shouldn't be reporting bugs or asking questions about using
Rabbit in versions prior to PHP 5.
Will you port Rabbit to PHP 4/PHP 5.0/PHP 5.1?
No. Get yourself the latest version of PHP. If your ISP doesn't provide it, get yourself another
ISP, or use a different framework.
Can I use Ruby/C/C++/Perl?
No. You can use PHP to connect to one of these languages using UNIX sockets, but you can't use
Rabbit itself within them. There are plenty of frameworks for these languages that you can use.
What web server can I use?
Lighttpd or Apache. You can try it out on different servers. We support the latest versions of
lighttpd and the latest stable version of the apache 2.2 branch. You can try it out on different
branches and versions -- it should generally work.
What web browser can I use?
Rabbit is a server-side framework. It is powered by PHP, a server-side language. The browser
technology you use is irrelevant. If you're still in doubt,
learn more about HTTP to see why client-side and
server-side are two different things.
Why should I use Rabbit?
You shouldn't. We made it for our own convenience and decided to share it with the world to help
other people. If you feel it helps you, use it. If you feel it doesn't help you, don't. It's up to
you. We're not trying to preach.
Does Rabbit support databases?
Yes. You can use MySQL or any other database system you wish with Rabbit.
Is Rabbit MVC?
No. It's not MVC. Nor will it become MVC. We use our own structure that has similarities with MVC,
but deviates from the evangelized pattern. We feel our structure is more convenient for our own
purposes. If you want to use MVC, get yourself another framework.
Is Rabbit Open Source?
Yes. Rabbit is open source and released under the BSD license. This means that you can download the
full source code for free and share it with your friends, legally. You can also edit the source code
to adjust it to your needs, and you can publish the changes you make or keep them to yourself.
Is Rabbit easy to use and learn?
No. It requires a learning curve. We feel it's worth learning it, because it speeds up development
once you do. If you want to use a framework that is easy to learn and can get you going in 5
minutes, there are plenty out there, such as CakePHP, Symphony, or CodeIgniter.
Who made Rabbit?
A lot of people from around the globe have contributed to Rabbit to make it what it is today, and
will continue to contribute to make it better.
Dionysis Zindros started it, and the
Kamibu team contributed a lot to it initially.
Can I help?
Yes. You can write code for Rabbit, fix bugs, implement new features, or write documentation. You
can test it and report bugs.
Help, I'm stuck!
If you're stuck, there's
documentation that you can look at which should be able
to help you. If the documentation is unable to help you, check the #rabbit IRC channel on Freenode.
...?
If you have more questions, find us on the #rabbit IRC channel on Freenode.
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