Framework or not?

Question

yesterday i went to English Class and met new friend, he said with me about the worked he did (still now i have studied in school).

In his company, the customers have many request for their project, if you use framework but not understand all component or like that, you would meet problem with your source code and you didn't fix it because it built by another one. And Cusomters paid money for you to developed their project, you must completed it by yourself, and if occur error you would to fix it. But if you use framework you can fix or not it's 50/50 percent for you.

I wonder about his said. Can you help me the best way me must choice? Framework or not?

We have many kinds customers and we must work with some technologies such as struts/ hibernate/Spring/ or so on...if not use framework the time we complete project so long but if use it i don't believe all component of it i can understand.

Thank you for your suggest!

Answer 1

• Should I use existing frameworks in my projects?

Yes, in general you should. The creators of the frameworks have put large amounts of work into them to make them good, and many other people use the frameworks, too. That means that the code is well-tested in practice. When you write your own code, it will be tested by just you and your team.

• What happens if there are bugs in the framework, how could I possibly fix them?

Good question, I don't know an answer right now. Most probably you would write some own code to work around the problem, like a small wrapper class.

• Do I have to understand the complete frameworks before I can use them?

No, you don't. Some frameworks are large and cover each and every aspect of software development. In most cases you only have to learn the things you really want to do, and some more. But not every detail.

• When I use a framework, is that cheating, since my customer wants me to develop software?

No, it isn't. Your customer doesn't really want you to do much work, he rather wants his projects to be done and finished. That means if you can do less work and profit from other's work, that's usually fine.

• We must work with third-party products like Structs/Hibernate/Spring, and if we are forced to implement them ourselves, the projects will take very long.

You really don't want to implement everything that Spring, Hibernate and Struts have already solved. So use these frameworks and be glad that someone else did the work. It's many man years that you will save.

Answer 2

I think it depends on the size of the project. If you're working in a small project probably it's a nonsense to use a framework, because you're going to be less productive. Instead if you're working in a big project the framework can help you a lot.

For example, in the case of Hibernate, if you're working in a project with three or four objects/tables, maybe it's a nonsense use it, because probably it's much easier to work with JDBC, and even the software will run much faster. But if you're in a project with docens of objects/tables working with JDBC can be a big headache, and hibernate helps you a lot. The time you loose in the configuration of the framework is small compared to the big benefit in the simplification of the development.

According to the possible bugs in the framework, is important to use a framework with a good support and a good community which can help you to solve your problems. Also if you use an open source framework you can try to solve the bug, add a new feature or modify an existing one to match with your project needs.

Answer 3

There are many factors to consider:

Is the framework commercial? If so, does the framework have a responsive support team with the ability to provide demos, documentation, consulting, "work-abouts" and hot-fixes? Can you purchase the source code to make any tweaks you need? (Is it worth it to may extra to have access to the source and can you redistribute a modified copy?)

Is the framework "open source"? If so, does the framework have a responsive forum or mailing list that can provide answers to problems? Are there paid consultants or contractors? Is the documentation good? Is the framework popular and is it being maintained? Can you apply hot-fixes as needed?

How much "time" is required to learn the framework? Do special conventions need to be used? Does using the framework cause some lock-in that will be incompatible with future requirements?

Etc, etc.

This all leads to: Does using the framework ultimately make work more productive?