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

I think the main reason is that when you use a common framework, there are a lot of people who are instantly familiar with your product.

Apart from that I think it's most important that whatever tools you use actually get the job done. If it happens to be familiar to other people, then that's a bonus.

Answer 2

Any experienced developer can build a framework -- the challenging part is convincing others that it's worth using. You'll need to create documentation and tutorials for it for those who plan to use or maintain it. You'll probably need to create a demo site to prove that its useful and actually works like it's supposed to.

That alone can be a considerable investment, not including bugs that could pop up in between. When its all said it done, it could be worth spending time learning another framework instead of making your own.

You mentioned CodeIgniter -- I personally feel like that's a pretty framework -- it doesn't get much more barebones than that.

Answer 3

Three reasons I can think of immediately:

• A well-known framework will be familiar to other developers who may have to work on your project
• A well-known framework will have resources like books, discussion boards, and other experts that can be used for finding out more information
• Managers will often have a "don't reinvent the wheel" philosophy. In fact, existing solutions have probably solved the same problems that you'd discover if you create your own solution.

All of that said, there may still be a place for your own solutions. We wouldn't have so many frameworks (or scripting languages) to choose from if no one started something new.

Answer 4

I think they are more useful if you are starting from scratch and don't have the time to write your own. If you already have a codebase you developed over the years, they may be much less useful, but it may still be useful to take a look and see what they did.

For example, I am sure major game development shops are not using third-party tools, engines and frameworks, not because they are not sufficient, but they already have built their own since the 80's or whatever.

Plus, if you are using an off-the-shelf component, there is no way to exceed it in its particular area. If you need to be a market leader in a particular dimension, you should be building your own solution in that dimension, so you can lead. If you don't need this capability, using a third-party component that is just as good as yours may be a good solution as long as it is an easy transition. Time to train in the new tool and living with its idiosyncrasies may or may not be worth it though.

The other thing to consider is that if you can build something, you truly understand it. Otherwise, you don't. Now, you don't need to fully understand stuff to use them, so long as they "just work", but we all know how that goes... :)

Answer 5

Can you solve the problems you are given have with your code faster and more reliably than public frameworks?

If yes, then keep using your own.

If no, then find the framework that does a better job and run with it for that project.

It all comes down to which codebase gets the job done better(for the value of better given by the client. ;) )

Answer 6

As you probably know: "time is money". So by using a popular framework with a lot of helpers, a lot of code examples on web and a big community you do more in less time.

Sometimes it if ok to use frameworks because you become more productive, but in some advanced and difficult projects it may happen so that the framework stays in your way and you have to find workarounds.

I think there is no definitive answer. You should put in balance the pros and cons and take the right decision for your project.

Usually I adopt popular frameworks very fast but not in critical parts of the projects and in time I extend their usage.