MVC - a question about the relevance of controllers

[Crusoe]

Hi all,

I am trying to create a PHP/MVC application without the help of a framework. When I start to do some serious development in PHP I may use a framework, but before that I thought it would be a good idea to gain an understanding of the principles of MVC.


Suppose I have a page WidgetView.php containing the following code

<ul>
<?php   
  $cList = new Widgets();
   for($j= 0; $j < $cList->count(); ++$j) {
          $c = $cList->item($j);
          	 print '<li>'.$c->getName().
          	 ' <a href= /"index.php?route=widget/edit&amp;widget_id=/"'
               .$c->getID().'>edit</a></li>';    
    }

?>
</ul>

This page simply lists the names of widgets (fetched from the database table) and displays a link to edit an individual widget item.

Now, clicking the "edit" link invokes the controller and the controller in turn serves up EditWidget_View.

My question is : Why shouldn't the edit link directly invoke EditWidget_View ? The controller takes the input parameters from WidgetView and passes them on to EditWidget_View without any processing of any sort, it's merely functioning as a postman here. What is the practical use of routing the edit action through the controller ?


Pardon me if the question sounds stupid. I hope someone here can help me.

Thanks

Crusoe