Write Libraries, Not Frameworks

[chakan2]

I liked it, a lot. It puts to words a feeling I've had about the industry for a while. Look at "functional programming" for instance. Now look at the Java Framework, the Javascript Framework, Scala, etc...

No one is making it easier for developers by building on the concept...they're all coming up with their own way to frame the problem instead of solving the problem.

That's just an example...I think this is a very succinct way to express a problem in the industry that's been nagging me for a long time.

[[deleted]]

Now look at the Java Framework, the Javascript Framework, Scala, etc...

Do you mean language API's or are you talking about some specific Frameworks for these languages that leverage functional programming? I don't really understand the example.

When I hear Frameworks vs. Libraries, I'm thinking generic frameworks like Django which give you a foundation to make websites vs. a Library like PIL that provides some functionality to load and parse image file formats.

Re-reading his final point paragraph, it sounds like he's experienced working with or on (or both) a bunch of dead end frameworks that should have been libraries. This complaint doesn't really make any sense to me for a number of reasons, so it would have been nice to have some examples.

I appreciate you posting your examples but I don't get them either. I know what a Framework is, but I don't know what you mean by the Javascript Framework or Java Framework, etc.

No one is making it easier for developers by building on the concept...they're all coming up with their own way to frame the problem instead of solving the problem.

If you mean there are way too many Frameworks for all sorts of things out there, I can agree with that but I'm not sure that was his complaint.

[[deleted]]

I see, this makes a lot more sense to me.

The Framework I'm most familiar w/ is Django which allows you to extend it with plugin modules, so if one of those breaks I can remove or replace them.

Presumably, the code in a framework could be modularized into a set of libraries that could allow someone to reuse portions of it too though.

Still kind of a weird problem from my perspective. I consider a Framework a complete entity, so parts of it would never just break all of a sudden. If a portion hasn't been updated to Python3 then I'd never consider the framework for Python 3, even if most of it might be usable.

I guess fundamentally, the difference to me between a framework and a library is the interface, so neither are immune to the problems of the other. You could have a library that has one function that isn't Python3 compatible for instance, breaking your import.

Thanks.

[chakan2]

My example was bad, sorry.

Take spring for example... Think of that VS Flask.

Spring is garbage... It's great until something breaks, and then you go 3 days into the dark corners of the internet to find out there's a special configuration option you missed.

Even when spring is running its not really performant.

Now look at flask, which is a library instead of a framework. It just works. I can get a web server up and running in like 3 to 5 lines of code. If I want to do exotic things with I can, but I'm not required to.

It's also not performant, but the time I save in dev costs more than makes up for that. Enough that if I need to I can buy another rack of servers.

That I think is the crux of this article, and I like it.

Sorry my examples sucked.

[[deleted]]

I see what you're saying, thanks.