Frameworks are just tools, not every framework is suitable for every situation and knowing which ones are best for a specific circumstance or even when not to use a framework is the mark of a pro. If you have to rely on a framework then you are truly limited as a designer / developer.
Foundation from my understanding has a lot of power without the overhead Bootstrap has and can produce the same results, it just gets there differently. I have used frameworks in the past as a developer and I freaking HATED them with a passion. The code was bloated, if I wanted to do one thing that would take me 10 lines or less if I wrote it myself but the framework would let me do same with 3 lines you would think that would be good, no? I looked behind the scenes at how it did that and in the end it was like a christmas tree jumping from 10 different classes, 35+ functions and a lot of the code was very very sloppy and caused extra load on the server. I dumped the frameworks and just coded the features I needed without the bloat. In the end the samething was accomplished and updating was much simpler.
Why reinvent the wheel when you have 500+ people doing the work for you? Because there are 500+ people involved and the code was a complete nightmare mess with 500 different directions going on at once. I hate frameworks on a developer side of things for that purpose.
On the other side of it though, I like them for giving functionality that I would NEVER be able to do myself. JQuery, Bootstrap, Foundation and all the other ones out there we have heard of and those we haven’t.
I think it is a mistake though as a professional or on the road to being one, to lock in on one framework or one aspect of web design / development. That does NOT mean you are a jack of all trades and master of none it just means you learn how to use the tools available and through this you know when one will be better for the job at hand. Have multiple tools in your tool belt with the knowledge to use them and you will out distance those that can only do one thing in one way.
I hired a designer a while back that all their sites were done a certain way. I wanted them to do a site in a different style, they said sure no problem. The end result? The same site that they always built, in the same way they always have done it. Their a one trick pony. Don’t be a one trick pony when it comes to web design or development.
I know automotive mechanics that make their own tools out of other tools. Cutting two or three different sized wrenches in half then welding them together to make a tool out of the most used sizes, or half wrench half screw driver. I don’t know any coder that doesn’t take bits of pre-existing code and mixes them together with their own code to get the results they need. Relying on just one way or one tool is a mistake and in a way puts you in the Freeway user spot of not knowing anything out of that scope of work flow.
@Jack if I were to offer you a thousand dollars to build a site without bootstrap that gives the same features and functions could you do it? With or without any framework? I am not actually offering you money, my point is that the creativity is not based on the tool or framework and if the thinking @Thomas has is that it is then I can’t relate to that at all, even a little bit.
I am not saying don’t use frameworks, don’t use Bootstrap or any specific tool or work flow but if you had to do the samething yourself with just a blank text editor window could you do it? In some ways these frameworks limit people but @Jack is showing me that you can mold Bootstrap to your own way so maybe I am wrong. The sign of a good tool is one that molds itself to your desires and not lock you into the frameworks way of doing something. Which is why I mostly have stayed away from them up to this point.
With Pinegrow and if @Jack can actually be bothered to talk in any of his videos then it would help me a lot to learn more about bootstrap design within PG. Have your girlfriend or wife narrate it if you can’t or pull someone off the street to talk into a mic… LOL Yeah, I follow along to a point but after awhile the clicking and moving around in the video I am like, why did he just do that? What was the thinking behind that move there?
Alright… done with rant.
