What is a software framework? [closed]

Solution 1:

I'm very late to answer it. But, I would like to share one example, which I only thought of today. If I told you to cut a piece of paper with dimensions 5m by 5m, then surely you would do that. But suppose I ask you to cut 1000 pieces of paper of the same dimensions. In this case, you won't do the measuring 1000 times; obviously, you would make a frame of 5m by 5m, and then with the help of it you would be able to cut 1000 pieces of paper in less time. So, what you did was make a framework which would do a specific type of task. Instead of performing the same type of task again and again for the same type of applications, you create a framework having all those facilities together in one nice packet, hence providing the abstraction for your application and more importantly many applications.

Solution 2:

Technically, you don't need a framework. If you're making a really really simple site (think of the web back in 1992), you can just do it all with hard-coded HTML and some CSS.

And if you want to make a modern webapp, you don't actually need to use a framework for that, either.

You can instead choose to write all of the logic you need yourself, every time. You can write your own data-persistence/storage layer, or - if you're too busy - just write custom SQL for every single database access. You can write your own authentication and session handling layers. And your own template rending logic. And your own exception-handling logic. And your own security functions. And your own unit test framework to make sure it all works fine. And your own... [goes on for quite a long time]

Then again, if you do use a framework, you'll be able to benefit from the good, usually peer-reviewed and very well tested work of dozens if not hundreds of other developers, who may well be better than you. You'll get to build what you want rapidly, without having to spend time building or worrying too much about the infrastructure items listed above.

You can get more done in less time, and know that the framework code you're using or extending is very likely to be done better than you doing it all yourself.

And the cost of this? Investing some time learning the framework. But - as virtually every web dev out there will attest - it's definitely worth the time spent learning to get massive (really, massive) benefits from using whatever framework you choose.

Solution 3:

The summary at Wikipedia (Software Framework) (first google hit btw) explains it quite well:

A software framework, in computer programming, is an abstraction in which common code providing generic functionality can be selectively overridden or specialized by user code providing specific functionality. Frameworks are a special case of software libraries in that they are reusable abstractions of code wrapped in a well-defined Application programming interface (API), yet they contain some key distinguishing features that separate them from normal libraries.

Software frameworks have these distinguishing features that separate them from libraries or normal user applications:

1. inversion of control - In a framework, unlike in libraries or normal user applications, the overall program's flow of control is not dictated by the caller, but by the framework.[1]
2. default behavior - A framework has a default behavior. This default behavior must actually be some useful behavior and not a series of no-ops.
3. extensibility - A framework can be extended by the user usually by selective overriding or specialized by user code providing specific functionality.
4. non-modifiable framework code - The framework code, in general, is not allowed to be modified. Users can extend the framework, but not modify its code.

You may "need" it because it may provide you with a great shortcut when developing applications, since it contains lots of already written and tested functionality. The reason is quite similar to the reason we use software libraries.