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General Discussion

Posted by Leandro Severino
Leandro Severino
12,674 Points

what's the difference between framework and library?

what's the difference between framework and library?

2 Answers

Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor
11,500 Points
Andrew Taylor
Andrew Taylor
11,500 Points

With a library you call parts of the library in your code. For example, in Javascript I could call .length(); which is a method in the Javascript library. With a framework it more states the architecture style that you code will follow, for example the MVC framework. Hope this helps :)

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

For what it's worth, Array#length() is a part of the JavaScript language; there's no such thing as the JavaScript library.

miikis
miikis
44,957 Points
miikis
miikis
44,957 Points

Hey Leandro,

Essentially, a library is just a collection of ready-made and — hopefully — unit-tested methods, functions or objects that you can plug-and-use in your code.

"Framework," on the other hand, encompasses a lot of meanings. Generally, frameworks tend to impose some kind of religion on you, some ritual you must abide by in order for everything to work as intended. In return, frameworks provide a solid foundation upon which you can build skyscraper-sized software. Really though, "framework" is a buzz-word that is often employed to generate hype. "This thing I created, it looks like a library, it quacks like a library but it's actually a framework!" It sounds cooler, I guess.