Rethinking the State of Frameworks
posted under category: ColdFusion on March 15, 2006 by Nathan
A couple of responses to my recent entry about the state of OOP in CF:
Ryan Guill had a good response about the need for us to become better programmers before we marry ourselves to any frameworks, which is a valid point. The comments further his point that we don't want people working on frameworks unless those people know why they are doing it. This is always a valid question: what problem are you trying to solve by using a framework? The same principal works for design patterns, language and development platform choices, development tools and so on.
Sean Corfield has some great input about some of my points. The all-in-one framework one, in particular, he says is just a bad idea. Truthfully, I can see it both ways.
There's a lot of frameworks, and we shouldn't discourage the use of any that do their jobs well. Saying that one is the only one to use would discourage others in thinking for themselves and making informed choices.
On the other hand, how many conversations have we had in the last year on various lists about "which framework should I use?" It would be nice to solve this for once. I personally know developers who don't choose to use one because it's not clear when and where to use which framework. Sometimes even I fall into this category. Something as simple as a chart that lays out the frameworks, where they all fit in and how to tie them together would be so, so useful. I've got an idea for this, I'll keep you posted.
I concede that there is no one-size-fits-all framework, but there are a lot of folks out there still scratching their heads.
I'll continue on this subject later - thanks, everyone for your feedback, both in comments and in blogs. I'm enjoying the discussion!