CSS frameworks are among the most actively used tools in web design and development. If you've been involved in the industry, at some point you would have heard, seen or used a CSS framework or library before. What many developers do not realise is that these frameworks flourish thanks to the open source movement.
Frameworks like Bootstrap and Zurb's Foundation offer a platform for rapid prototyping, getting your site up and running by providing all of the common building blocks. Bootstrap and Foundation are just two popular examples, there are hundreds if not thousands of great frameworks out there that aim to get you up and running with ease.
CSS frameworks are great representations of the ideals and motivations that make open source as a whole so great. Frameworks bring together designers, developers and enthusiasts to work on something for the collective benefit of everyone.
What Can Open Source Frameworks Offer Us?
One of the fundamental principles of the open source philosophy is the free exchange of ideas and information for the improvement of the community as a whole. CSS frameworks embody that spirit. From the developer's perspective, frameworks and CSS / JS libraries let you build your projects from a solid starting point, leveraging the skills, experience and dedication of a community.
Whether you're interested in joining a community to lend a helping hand or you're a developer considering if open source methods are right for your project, there's a great number of reasons why you should consider embracing open source and everything it can offer. You can find some of them listed below.
Helping to Shape Communities You Are Interested In
Arguably, one of the best reasons to participate in open source projects is that you get to have an active hand in shaping how the product evolves.
Unlike closed source / proprietary projects, you as a developer get to take an active role in improving and guiding the project. You are not just a casual observer.
The Foundation project on GitHub is a good example of this. The team use GitHub as their primary point of interaction and use it to track bugs, feature requests and general feedback. Developers can search through their framework and propose changes, outline bugs and generally make it better as a whole.
These projects usually have a developer or team of developers at its core who manage what commits they pull into their projects' core. A vast majority of the time, the developers managing these projects (including Foundation) are happy for you to commit changes — so long as the proposed changes are useful and in accordance with the goals of the project. If that's the case, they will be adopted. This is great because, if you're using a framework or library and it doesn't have critical feature X, you can provide the feature directly to the developers and they can pull it into the next version of their framework.
Your mileage may vary, but for a majority of the projects I've been involved in, bug requests, feature addons and feedback are greatly valued by the project owner as it shows their creation is actively being used and is of value to the community. It's a great system that benefits both parties. It doesn't matter how big or small your contribution is, every bit of effort goes towards making the project as a whole better for everyone.
Becoming Part of the Community Spirit
This might sound subjective, but there's a definite difference in the vibe and emotion that you get from communities and activities that involve open source, it's a feeling that you're part of something bigger, working together to build something awesome.
While events like traditional conferences are all well and good, it is activities that involve the community, where you can have real and concrete input, that motivate us the most.
With its developer conferences and fun, interactive events, Mozilla is a great example of the community spirit in open source development. The same could be said about what you get from participating in a framework much like Foundation or Bootstrap. Working together on a CSS framework lets you connect with other people and bolsters your personal and interpersonal skills. You can work as a team collectively on larger issues or maybe just provide feedback and testing.
Refining Your Development Techniques
Another benefit of contributing to open source frameworks is that you can use that opportunity to refine your development skills. Even if you're a seasoned developer, there's always something you can learn by reading through other people's code.
Also, participating in a community gives you a chance to showcase your knowledge and understanding, somewhat like show and tell when you were at school. I know that when I contribute to open source frameworks, I'm always double and triple checking my code to ensure it's the best I can produce. It's this type of self assessment that is incredibly beneficial to you as a developer.
Helping Others (and Yourself)
The great thing about joining in on open source endeavors is that you can help other developers in the community. Your contributions along with everyone else's improves the project as a whole.
In the case of front-end frameworks, you can contribute as little or as much as you want to. Anything from bug reports, feature requests and even providing feedback are valued contributions.
Again, Foundation is a good example of this. Its developers are active in improving and refining their CSS framework. They released several major versions over the last few years (now at version 6) and each time feedback from the community leads to a better product. If you're new to Foundation, check out the articles listed below for more details on the latest release of the framework.
- What’s New in Foundation 6?
- Getting Started with Foundation 6’s CLI Tools
- Foundation 6: The New Menu Component
- Foundation 6: The New Flex Grid
Leveraging Existing Solutions
This is a no-brainer. Using an existing framework instead of building everything from scratch is faster. In fact, it takes your mind off the basics and lets you focus on the complexity of your job.
When thinking about building up from the strength of existing solutions, Zurb Foundation's grid component comes to mind. You can use the Grid by applying a combination of rows, columns and settings to build both simple and complex layouts.
The benefit here being that the Grid just works, you don't need to worry about it breaking or figuring out the responsive logic yourself, you can leverage the collective experience of other developers to help boost your development.
Open Source, What Does the Team Behind Foundation Think?
Continue reading %The Power of Open Source in the Foundation Framework%
by Simon Codrington via SitePoint
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