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HTML

Posted by mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

Is using Foundation 5 cheating?

I've been using Foundation 5 for the past four days. I can make a website, nothing crazy fancy yet, but pretty good by new person standards. The first site I practiced was the one Nick makes in the beginning of team treehouse. I like the portfolio page we did, when each picture is floated to the left, and the pictures appear right next to each other. When I code the project, style the page, and other aspects of portfolio.html page, it takes me about a hour to a hour and a half. If I do the same thing using Foundation 5 it will take me a half hour to forty five minutes. Once you get how the grids work you can hum along at a good pace. Do you think using Foundation is cheating because the framework takes all the real hard things, and makes it easier to do? I feel kind of guilty that with Foundation it's like....BANG I'm done making my site.

Thanks for any replies.

5 Answers

Adam Moore
Adam Moore
21,956 Points

I kinda have felt the same way about some of the newer technologies/frameworks that help to make programming easier for people. However, I am beginning to think of it as how we use the computer in the first place. When we open up our computer, we don't have to start from the console in order to run a program or change or rename files; we can do it on our desktop screen. When we need to write an email, we don't have to write code in order to send an email, although there is a lot of code necessary in order to do so. When it comes to programming, whatever tools are developed to make things easier, I believe, should be embraced. Technology is going to be constantly developed and improved and created, and the languages at their core will still be available to learn, and even essential for certain tasks. I do feel that, at this current time, while the programming languages and the tools out there that assist development overlap and interact with each other on the coding level, it would serve one best to be well familiar with both.

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

Good points. I've had similar thinking myself, which is why it's possible (maybe not in the immediate future) web design tools like Macaw, Webflow, Edge Reflow, Pinegrow, etc., will largely replace the hand-coding process.

I think if I were to use a framework it'd be something minimal like Layers CSS.

Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points
Dustin Matlock
Dustin Matlock
33,856 Points

You might check out The Pros And Cons Of CSS Frameworks.

James Anwyl
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James Anwyl
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 49,960 Points
James Anwyl
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James Anwyl
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 49,960 Points

Not at all, if it helps you get the job done quicker that's great!

It can be helpful to know whats going on 'behind the scenes' though, so you can modify or delete parts of the framework that you don't need.

Andre Martins
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Andre Martins
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 5,738 Points
Andre Martins
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Andre Martins
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Student 5,738 Points

I am feeling a bit like Mr. X. in the beginning of the thread.

Finished the web design track yesterday and I was like.. "ok... lets do this.". And I honestly did not know where to start. I was divided between "okay.. How do people do it nowadays? should I go and code my website from scratch? should I mock it up in Photoshop?"

After reading though the forum, I got curious and went to take a look at the Framework Basics Course... and I LOVED IT. It makes things simple and very user friendly.

But.. somehow I feel kinda guilty using it judging by the effort it takes to build up some experience in html and CSS. One of my major questions is: As a rookie, will I lose track of some important html/css practices by using all these "ready-made shortcuts"? I know you can learn a lot from using the frameworks, but wouldn't it be prejudicial to rely so much in frameworks? If you get a job in webdesign and depend so much in frameworks, wouldn't you fall a bit behind on a "sorting out the problems by yourself" ?

Please correct me if I am wrong, as a newbie I am really trying to get up to speed with the industry :)

mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

Excellent question. I still feel guilty using foundation, I also love foundation 5. If I were you I would do the CSS Deep Dive because, you do need to know what rules/styles are going to do on your page, and also what styles should be used to tweak your page best. That's my two cents.

mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points
mrx3
mrx3
8,742 Points

Thanks for all the comments. Very helpful.