In every profession there are certain skills which need to learned in order to be successful in that field. Unlike most fields, computer science is nearly limitless in the opportunities to learn new things. Whether you are learning different sorting algorithms, or learning an entirely new coding language, there is always something new you could learn. While frameworks may seem unimportant at a glance, they offer some of the easiest ways to get started in a new language as well as plenty of general purpose utility functions.
Why use a Framework
At first learning a new framework can be daunting, it’s a lot like learning a brand new language within a language. It’s easy to pick up and use Pig-Latin because you already understood the English language which it is derived from. Frameworks function very similarly to Pig-Latin in that they give you a new set of rules on an old language. Rather than switching letter order and adding a sound, frameworks give you functions that have a pre-described and predictable effect without you having to hardcode in the entirety of what you wanted.
Can you customize?
While frameworks come packaged with all sorts of goodies, the fun doesn’t end with what’s in the package. Because frameworks are based off of another language, we can use that other language to customize our implementation of the framework itself. This customizability allows frameworks to work better to our needs, rather than us working to fit the framework.
Its Your Decision!
At the end of the day, frameworks can be quite helpful in many circumstances, and in the instances they aren’t, there’s no need to force their use. If you are going to be working on something that will require you to hard code in specific tools for your function, consider looking into frameworks to see if there are any that would benefit your situation. You just might end up saving yourself hundreds of hours by simply biting the bullet, and learning a framework..