Why do I need to use a popular framework?

Question

I\'ve been a PHP developer for many years now, with many tools under my belt; tools that I\'ve either developed myself, or free-to-use solutions that I have learned to trust

Answer 1

Here's another reason not to create your own framework. Linus' Law - "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow". In other words, the more people who use a given framework, the more solid and bug-free it is likely to be.

Have you seen how many web frameworks there are for Java? Back in the day, it was fashionable for any half-decent developer/architect to write their own custom web framework. And at the end of the day, 95% of them looked like a custom implementation of Struts (the most popular Java web framework at the time). So they basically created a Struts clone that was: 1) proprietary; and 2) not as well documented and tested.

Let's face it - writing our own customer framework is fun, but what happens next? It becomes a maintenance burden to keep up with the framework yourself (or the poor soul who replaces you). And maintaining software is much, much more costly, especially when it comes to custom frameworks. Is the company in business to solve domain problems or in the business of maintaining frameworks?

I forget who said it, but I once heard a great quote - "The first rule to creating your own framework is: don't". Somebody else has probably gone through the effort of doing so and probably done the same work you would have done. Save yourself the time, effort, and testing.

Answer 2

What you essentially have is your own framework. So, it isn't a time-saver FOR YOU, because you have already spent the time to develop the framework. If you didn't have that to build from, it would certainly be easier and faster to use an existing framework than to roll your own.

What you need to look at is whether or not your framework is better than other options out there, and whether your familiarity with your own code outweighs having other eyes looking at it, and other people using it in enough different ways that the likelihood of any problems being found and corrected is much higher.

Also, if your framework is so much better than everyone elses', you might consider opening yours up to the community ;)

Answer 3

Advantages are that it's already written and tested by multiple people therefore less likely to be bug prone.

Disadvantages are that it's not built specifically for your application and therefore will most likely perform worse.

All in all, I can't really see much reason to use one considering you already have your own...although it may be worth releasing that open source so others are able to bug check and recommend improvements.

Answer 4

The framework code is likely to be well-tested and relatively free of bugs. By using it you save yourself time testing/maintaining your own code to do the same thing.

And any time saved is good. Laziness pays off in programming.

Answer 5

I would go against the grain here, and say, you should use your own custom framework, If the software you are building is the core of your business. As Joel would say, "Find the dependencies - and eliminate them". If you are just putting up a little website for your company, and you business isn't maintaining websites, then go ahead and use a framework. But when that website is your business, then you shouldn't depend on a framework from somebody else to let you get the job done.

Answer 6

You may have a point.... however I wouldn't underestimate the power of many, as an example phpBB is as far as i'm concerned the bb solution to use. Why? Because there are many, many thousands of posts on their support boards and many people using it who are knowledgeable and can help people solve problems.

Therefore the only reason in your case to use a popular framework is the many others that use it, report bugs against it, fix it and support it. It'll be tricky to get the same coverage on your own libraries.