Building frontend + backend : best practices ?

[eluser]al404[/eluser]
[quote author="Chamyto" date="1224426098"]This is how I do it. I create 2 application directories and 2 bootstrap files. That way, I have no interaction from either front end or back end when I am working on the other.

I create another bootstrap file by copying the index.php into admin.php in the root. then I configure the bootstrap file.[/quote]

it is what i'm doing but....

but if you sset index.php and admin.php in the root, how do you configure .htaccess to remove index.php from the url?

i create index.php in the root for the public app
and a cms/index.php for the backend app

i can redirect correctly via .htaccess for the front end but not for the backend