Always remember that there is no such thing as “bloated” or “heavy” or “light”; there is only “heavier” or “lighter” or “more bloated” or “less bloated” in comparison to something else.

… let’s go with that article [on Silex] and use its approach to make a comparison between Silex and Aura.Web_Project to see if my earlier claim, using the terms and measurements outlined by the Silex post author, is accurate.

  • If you measure by the number of package dependencies, disregarding how similar functionality is split up between packages, then Silex is lighter.

  • If you measure by the total disk usage, Aura.Web_Project is lighter.

  • If you measure by the total NCLOC, Aura.Web_Project is lighter.

  • If you measure by the total class count, Aura.Web_Project is lighter.

  • If you measure by the acutual-usage class count, disregarding how similar functionality is split up among classes, then Silex is lighter.

  • If you measure by the actual-usage NCLOC, Aura.Web_Project is lighter.

  • If you measure by how many classes “for the most part” are in the public API, Aura.Web_Project is lighter.

In 5 of the 7 measures put forth by the original Silex article, Aura.Web_Project is the lighter of the two.

UPDATE: Via Which is Lighter, Silex or Aura.Web_Project?

Are you stuck with a legacy PHP application? You should buy my book because it gives you a step-by-step guide to improving you codebase, all while keeping it running the whole time.