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Adeyemi Raji
Adeyemi Raji

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Difference between Framework and library in the context of React and Angular

People often confuse or use the terms "framework" and "library" interchangeably without fully understanding the differences between them. In this article, we will clarify the distinctions between frameworks and libraries in order to better understand the key differences between them.

    1. A library is a collection of code that you can use in your program to perform a specific task. For example, the C standard library provides functions for performing input/output operations, mathematical computations, and other common tasks.
  • A framework is a set of libraries and tools that provide a structure for building a particular type of software application. A framework defines the way that the different parts of an application should interact, and provides a set of conventions for building and organizing the code.

One key difference between libraries and frameworks is that with a library, you call the functions provided by the library to perform a specific task. With a framework, the framework calls your code in certain places, and you provide the implementation for those hook functions. This means that with a framework, you have less control over the overall flow of the program, but it can make it easier to build certain types of applications because the framework provides a lot of the "plumbing" for you.

In the context of JavaScript web development, React and Angular are both frameworks for building web applications.

  1. React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It was developed by Facebook and is often used for building single-page applications (SPAs) and mobile applications. React allows you to build reusable UI components, and it uses a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) to improve performance by minimizing the number of DOM manipulations required when rendering components.

  2. Angular is a full-featured JavaScript framework for building web applications. It was developed by Google and provides a complete set of tools for building both the front-end and back-end of a web application. Angular uses a component-based architecture, and it provides a range of features including dependency injection, routing, and a template-based syntax for defining views.

Both React and Angular are widely used for building modern web applications, and they can both be used to build applications with similar functionality. However, they have some key differences in terms of their design and the way that they approach building applications. For example, React is focused on building reusable UI components, while Angular provides a more complete set of tools for building an entire web application.

Thanks for reading.

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