frameworkwithout

frameworkwithout is a software design philosophy that rejects reliance on traditional, opinionated frameworks in favor of building systems from small, well-defined components. The approach emphasizes minimal bootstrapping, explicit dependencies, and portability across environments, aiming to reduce vendor lock-in and the overhead associated with large frameworks.

Origin and usage: The term has circulated in developer communities since the mid-2020s as a reaction to monolithic frameworks. It is not a formal standard or standard specification, but a label used to describe projects and practices that favor library-first stacks, modular composition, and clear separation of concerns. It is encountered in frontend, backend, and cloud-native contexts.

Key principles: Core ideas include modular architecture with explicit dependency wiring, small libraries with clean interfaces, avoidance of global state, and deterministic builds. frameworkwithout promotes testability, easy replacement of components, and the ability to assemble applications from interchangeable parts rather than from a single framework.

Patterns and practices: Common implementations rely on plain function composition, dependency injection, adapters, and simple configuration management. Projects favor small tooling, conventional build systems, minimal runtime assumptions, and manual orchestration of components rather than framework-provided conventions.

Criticism and considerations: Critics argue that frameworkwithout can lead to more boilerplate, increased initial setup, and higher cognitive load for teams, especially on larger projects. It may sacrifice cohesion and productivity if team members lack strong design discipline or if there is insufficient tooling for maintainability.

See also: Unopinionated architecture, Micro-framework, Modular design, Dependency injection.