Thoughts on Boostrap..

[Loremzotom]

I discovered Bootstrap during a Codecademy course I was taking, and it seemed to good to be true. In my personal projects, I have been taking a Bootstrap template I like the looks of, and copy the code into my text editor. From there I like to alter it a lot. I change the font, add images, change colors, delete things, change the layout sometimes, et cetera. But, is this cheating? I still leave in a lot of code, but understand it..mostly. I want to be a professional web developer, and I want to know if I should get out of my Bootstrap habit, and change my ways. What do you guys think? I understand HTML and CSS, and can write up a decent website from scratch; but Bootstrap is so efficient, and can make things pretty, haha.

Anyway, I came up with an analogy, and I want to know if you agree with it or not:

Think of writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by hand as a plain old axe, and cutting down a tree with the axe is writing a website from scratch. Just about everyone can do it, and some people even prefer to use the axe! But then there’s a chainsaw; Bootstrap. A chainsaw can get the job done fast and with ease. Both do the same things, but in different ways.

So, give me your feedback and let me know what I should do! Constructive criticism is encouraged, but negative statements are strongly discouraged. Thank you!

• Thomas (Loremzotom)

[Chris House]

My biased and totally self-centric advice: don’t use bootstrap or any other boilerplate/framework. Just learn to do things by hand. Be in complete control of your code, know it inside and out, learn how it all works, and keep things simple.

Your axe/chainsaw analogy implies that bootstrap gives you something extra that you won’t have otherwise. I don’t see it this way. Everything that Bootstrap does can easily be done by hand, minus the cruft.

I think lots of people use these tools as crutches, adding unneeded bloat to their code. The few times I’ve attempted to use a framework (I’ve tried Bootstrap and 960 Grid), I felt like I was constantly fighting against the pre-made classes and restrictive structure, never having full control over my code.

I dunno, I just get stressed when I can’t look through my HTML and CSS and 100% understand what everything does. I need to be in the driver’s seat. No cruft, no surprises. But that’s just me.

[Paulie_D]

But then there’s a chainsaw; Bootstrap. A chainsaw can get the job done fast and with ease.

Yes, but it’s a 1500lb chainsaw with 200 attachments that you’ll probably never use when all you want to do is cut up some logs.

[Loremzotom]

Very good advice, and I agree with you. I’m going to start a project that is just coding by hand, and try to do everything without Bootstrap. Who knows, maybe I’ll prefer your way of doing things. Thank you for your advice!

[__]

Think of writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by hand as a plain old axe, and cutting down a tree with the axe is writing a website from scratch. Just about everyone can do it, and some people even prefer to use the axe!

Can’t help but think you’ve never cut down a tree with an axe.

: )

[Loremzotom]

Nope, I never have! It may or may not make sense, I was just putting it in there to see what people thought.

[__]

I understood what you meant. : )
And it makes sense, actually — probably more than you realize. Using an ax correctly/effectively is not intuitive.

[Loremzotom]

Thank you all for your fast, and well delivered feedback, I agree with you all!

I am planning to slowly move out of Bootstrap and make my own ‘templates’, to when the time comes to make a website, I can start with one of my own templates that is easy to maintain, understand, and doesn’t bloat. I’m super excited, again, thank you all so much!

[deeve007]

I can see the use of a customizes bootstrap framework for huge online applications, where you might have many people working on the code and it ensure consistency across the whole project, and everyone knows what’s going on.

But for small/medium sized sites, I keep looking at it (and Foundation) and wondering if it could save me time while delivering an optimum result for my clients… but I keep coming away with how bloated it is, with so many tools in there that just will never be used on most websites.

What might be good is if you reversed engineered Bootstrap or Foundation, and took the time to work out why something was done a certain way. And then put back together something much small targeted for what you need. Just an idea. ;)

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