After looking at countless PHP frameworks, I think I’ve finally found an acceptable solution. I was randomly browsing Github when I came upon Slim PHP Framework. It’s small, clean, 5.3 compatible, includes a minimal plugin system, has coding standards and unit tests, a roadmap for future development and most importantly, more than one developer is working on it.
Considering that PHP 5.2.15 5.2.16 is supposed to be the last release on the 5.2 branch, it’s a good idea to start using a 5.3 capable framework.
I forked it and added filtering hooks to accompany the existing “action” hooks, similar to what WordPress does. I also plan to make an authentication plugin soon.