Fall Once and Think Twice Before Using Web Frameworks
Years ago, I was obsessed with the PHP programming language. I have spent most of my time learning whatever comes in my way that is related to the language. I was making great progress until I got to the point where I was ready to build a real web application. I was happy with the language until I found out about web frameworks. The first web framework that I have experienced was Laravel. At that time, Laravel had a considerable community supporting the framework. I was a bit unsure about web frameworks. I always asked myself why I should learn the same language twice. I have searched a lot whether to use a web framework or not. The hype of web frameworks was overgrowing. Therefore, I gave it a chance to learn, build, and implement a project based on a web framework. However, things were not as I was expected.
I have not felt right about using web frameworks for the following reasons
There are many web frameworks out there. It becomes very confusing which framework to use.
Frameworks are going under rapid development. Many features become deprecated as new versions get released.
Learning a framework does not feel right. You become very restricted to the documentation. Learning from online courses became less useful. Even online courses just read the documentation out loud for you.
When you get stuck somewhere, you immediately go online searching for the solution. You become less confident in solving the problem in your way. Everything in frameworks is predefined for you. You may break things down if you tend to solve in a different way, which kills creativity.
You tend to forget how to use the web framework easily because it is not your code.
Let’s go over the reasons why you should not be using web frameworks in more details.
Web Frameworks Kill Your Time and Creativity
It takes time to learn a new framework. As we have mentioned before, you tend to spend most of your time reading the documentation and searching to find out how to implement a specific feature. Instead, you should learn the fundamental tools, core computer science concepts, and programming techniques. Nevertheless, you should start thinking about it more critically. Just because someone invented a framework, it does not mean you must learn and use it.
You should give yourself a chance before depending on a framework!
Web Frameworks Limits Your Creativity
Frameworks put you in a box that you may not be able to escape. Whenever you face an obstacle in your code, you immediately depend on Google rather than finding a solution for your issue because you are limited by what the framework allows you to do. You must find an expert to find a solution to your problem. This could be wasting your time and energy.
Do not let framework creator to let you know what you can or cannot do!
Web Frameworks Make Your Project Complex and Dependent
You should always avoid complexity and dependencies in your building any applications. You should keep your project complexity and dependencies at a minimum. If you do not control your project complexity and dependencies, then one dependency leads to another, and soon, your project ends up using a bunch of frameworks and libraries. You should predefine what you should and should not use in your project.
You should avoid framework complexity and dependencies rather than embracing it!
Web Frameworks Can Disappear
Frameworks become less in demand as new frameworks emerge. Most people hype about new web frameworks because they do not want to be left out. In fact, you should not care about the hype. The core fundamental tools already let you do everything that these frameworks do. You will be wasting your time learning something that does not solve anything new. There are many frameworks out there that are not being maintained anymore because people stopped using them as new frameworks come out.
You should use fundamental core concepts and solid programming languages that will be used in the next decades!
Web Frameworks Change Rapidly
If you wait too long between framework updates, the framework would have changed dramatically. Then, you must spend countless time updating and upgrading your code and learn how to implement the new features. You may not even need the extra functionalities that the new framework provides. You may not even require anything from the new framework update.
If your software works at version x, then it should stay at version x unless it’s necessary!
Web Frameworks Contains Many Features
We have seen it many times that a project with a bunch of frameworks features when only a few features are used. At this point, developers already destroyed their project. Therefore, asking which framework to use is the wrong question to start a new project with.
You should start your project with an empty file!
Nevertheless, frameworks should be used when it is necessary. I’m not saying that there is not a use-case for frameworks. However, I believe that frameworks should be used when dense mathematical complex areas of computing, such as sound processing, machine learning, and image processing. It makes sense to use frameworks in these areas due to the time restriction.
Real developers do not let developers use frameworks!
If you enjoyed this, you may also take a look at my other article down below!
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