Re: Tiny Frameworks

[toma]

Ah, a framework flame fest! I remember those from the CAD business in the early 1990's. At first, frameworks were touted as platforms for interoperability between different vendor's products. This definition didn't seem to conform to reality.

A definition for 'CAD Framework' that I heard in the late 1990's is that a framework is the 'outer window' of a CAD application. CAD tools often have a lot of little windows that are confined inside a larger window. So whatever structure implements the outermost window of the application is the framework. With this type of definition, you could say, for example, that a web browser is a framework for a web application.

For business lock-in, many software vendors want to own and control the framework. For example, microsoft has ie/iis to lock in their web products.

Some of the derision that people feel towards frameworks may come from the difference between the hype: 'The framework is a platform for interoperability' and the reality: 'The framework is the mechanism for vendor lock-in.'

IIRC There is another definition of framework from AI that may be a little closer to Ovid's idea.