framework

Framework may refer to:

• Software framework, a reusable set of libraries or classes for a software system (or subsystem).
  • Application framework, a software framework used to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific operating system.
  • Web application framework, a software framework for development of dynamic websites, web applications, and web services
• Framework (office suite), a DOS office application suite launched in 1984 to run on the original IBM PC under the MS-DOS operating system.
• Process framework such as ITIL or Enhanced Telecom Operations Map
• Conceptual framework, a set of theories widely accepted enough to serve as the guiding principles of research within a particular discipline.
• Legal framework, a form of legal doctrine

Software framework

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In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which common code providing generic functionality can be selectively overridden or specialized by user code, thus providing specific functionality. Frameworks are a special case of software libraries in that they are reusable abstractions of code wrapped in a well-defined Application programming interface (API), yet they contain some key distinguishing features that separate them from normal libraries.
Software frameworks have these distinguishing features that separate them from libraries or normal user applications:

1. inversion of control - In a framework, unlike in libraries or normal user applications, the overall program's flow of control is not dictated by the caller, but by the framework.^[1]
2. default behavior - A framework has a default behavior. This default behavior must actually be some useful behavior and not a series of no-ops.
3. extensibility - A framework can be extended by the user usually by selective overriding or specialized by user code providing specific functionality.
4. non-modifiable framework code - The framework code, in general, is not allowed to be modified. Users can extend the framework, but not modify its code.

There are different types of software frameworks: conceptual, application, domain, platform, component, service, development, etc.^[2]