A framework is kind of like a big template for software applications. A framework gives you a skeleton to work with, where the programmer fleshes out the detai

A framework is kind of like a big template for software applications. A framework gives you a skeleton to work with, where the programmer fleshes out the details in the flexible spots. Except that instead of just some boilerplate code, you have a whole set of libraries and applications. For a trivial analogy, consider this template for a C program: #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { // Your code here. return 0; } It is not technically a "framework" because it's just a few lines in one file, but it's different mostly by magnitude (though also by the fact that it is trivially modifiable). And maybe, if this is an IDE, it puts our cursor right at the line where you're supposed to start putting your own code. Conceptually, what this does is give you a clear place to start developing. It sets up some libraries that you'll probably use defines a main function that accepts arguments and gives you a default return code of 0 (which means success, by convention). Frameworks essentially do the same thing on a larger scale, and usually with multiple discrete components. The key difference between a library and a framework is that a library is something that the developer imports and invokes, whereas the framework establishes a useful context for a specialized type of development.