Instead of Starting From Scratch, Use a Framework!

07 Feb 2018

In almost any career, there is a typical framework that one follows when they start a new project. When it comes to coding, this could be the standard libraries or some pre-populated projects because the programming structure doesn’t change. Similar to following coding standards, a lot of projects follow some type of framework. When someone starts a project, they leverage their experience and create a framework based on designs that they had created in the past. Frameworks are used a basis for newer projects for consistency and for saving the need to remake what has already been made.

Rather than using raw HTML and CSS, we can use a framework. There is no need to generate code from scratch when it is something that you might repetitively use. Software developers realized this which is how frameworks such as Twitter Bootstrap and Semantic UI came into existence. These frameworks allow programmers to design websites without having to redesign the individual components. It provides the developer with the tools needed to quickly generate results during development.

As part of ICS 314, we are tasked to learn and apply Semantic UI, a framework created for designing websites in HTML/CSS. I have no web development experience prior to this class, so this is the first framework I have worked with. I personally thought that Semantic UI was fairly easy to learn as it used “common sense” keywords to determine functionality, for example: “centered”, “container”, etc. Compared to the prior week where we first learned raw HTML/CSS, web design got a lot simpler and significantly more elaborate. This resulted in greater efficiency and a more aesthetically pleasing result.

Using Semantic UI is like using a standard library in C/C++. Why would you want to recode functions that already exist and can easily be implemented? My overall experience with the framework is positive so far and hope that my experiences with it may be applicable in the future.