Chat: Feb. 24 — To Framework or Not To Framework? That Is the Question

  1. What are 3 advantages of using a framework for front-end development?
    -You can save hundreds even thousands of hours in development time making frameworks an efficiency tool.
    -All ready debugged for browser compatibility, which saves time and money if you had to do it yourself.
    -Grid system is already established and tested to work with different browsers & devices.

What are three potential drawbacks of using a framework?
-They contain a lot of components and extra files that you may not need.
-You can customize your download package to reduce bloat but you will need to take note of what you did and did not download so that you repeat the process when updating your files.
-An understanding of CSS and HTML is required. Some knowledge of SASS or LESS is important as well.

  1. What PHP example does the author compare the use of frameworks to? 15-20 years ago everything had to be built from scratch but with Survey Monkey’s API, what cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, is affordable.
  2. How would project budget affect your decision of whether to use a framework or not? If a client has the budget for a completely custom site than that might be the way to go but if the client has a very small budget but still doesn’t want a cookie cutter site, a framework comes with all the components you need which allows you to concentrate on customizing the look.
  3. Explain one “aha!” moment that you had while reading this article. Did this article change the way you feel about anything? I didn’t really have an “aha” moment per se other than why build a site completely from scratch if you don’t need to. Frameworks are clearly a good middle ground between totally custom and totally cookie cutter.