Frameworks (Bootstrap/Foundation) VS... DIY?

Hey Lucas!

Frameworks like Bootstrap are actually incredibly popular and you'll be surprised by how many websites use frameworks like that or others! Especially Bootstrap. A LOT of Front-End Devs will actually use frameworks like this for building websites quickly.

Bootstrap is popular because of how quickly and effectively you can apply stylings and functionality - as you may have read! The CSS etc is essentially added to your project, and you can easily style things but add "keyword" names to the class of HTML elements.

Like any framework, it is there as a tool and you certainly are not frowned upon if the tool is right for the context!

That being, I have also seen a lot of highly respected developers who essentially build their own frameworks! Some even admit to being inspired by other frameworks but building their own for their specific needs.

If you the time on your hands, you could certainly build the next big framework! I know I would love the eventually love to write my own framework for Front-End Dev.

Happy coding!

EDIT: In terms of work opportunities etc, most of the time I find that it is a requirement to know either how frameworks work or to be familiar with the popular ones! Frameworks are also used by devs for almost anything and everything. A big example is things like iOS frameworks. There are plenty of built in frameworks that allow you to use functionality like drawing shapes etc without having to re-invent the wheel and write all that code yourself.

My advice would be that you should learn about frameworks, but more strive to understand how they work and how they apply to your project. It also normally sets a precedent for what is good coding practise when you look at the source material!

I recommend you to take more courses before writing a new page from scratch. It's required more skill to do that.

For a practice, you may sketch what the look of your webpage on the paper. Then see how you can write each one separately and try writing it out to see if the result is what you want or not. Start at the easy thing like div, p, img tag for html and some easy css like color. Google to find how you can create each one.

When you've learned more advanced courses, you can try looking at the real website code to see what they do in the real situations and try to duplicate the website with your own way.

For the framework question, a lot developers use it. You can see how much github star of the Foundation framework for the evidence. Knowing just one of this two frameworks is recommended since it speed up your development process a lot. More of that, you can read other works more easily (if they used this two). When you have skill enough and you want to have your own way of doing things, you can tweak this framework to be your new one or you can write one from scratch.

But I don't recommend you to dive into the framework now. You need to know some basics first. Follow the track until you can write your own page then that's the time.

Happy coding.