What is the difference between a framework and a library?

Modified on 6th Jan, 2020 Tom Hazledine

When coding, we often make use of external tools and snippets to make our life easier. Importing existing code into your codebase is a common occurrence. But what is the difference between code that adds missing features to the language you're using and code that changes the way you structure your application? The crucial difference is that the former are libraries (probably) and the later are frameworks (probably).

Are all libraries small? Are all frameworks huge? Where do we draw the line between them? And what even is jQuery, anyway? Find out all this and more in this week's amazing instalment of A Question of Code.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Lodash (_)
• jQuery - there's no need to learn this anymore!
• moment.js
• The "career graph" on Tom's homepage
• Flask
• Django
• M.V.C.
• Rails

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