In recent days I have heard of many flex and flash developers trying to make use of micro-architectures like ARP, Swiz, Cairngorm, PureMVC for their projects. In the middle of the project they find lot of management task while maintaining the standards by the architectures. I don’t say it’s the problem with the architectures that are being followed- the questions is ‘ when should we use an framework and when try to avoid it’.
Consider the cases while using any frame work.
1.If you are creating enterprise level application which is more complicated and large in terms of features and modules.
2. If you have a team of more than 2-3 people or team members are geographically separated.
3. When you are creating code module and thinking of making it open source with some standard to follow.
Avoid using in the following cases:
1. You are the sole developer of any project.
2. You think you are not going to use more than 3000 LOC( not fixed and depends over the period & complexity of development)- it means you have a small project.
3. Do not know any of the framework internal behaviour.
You may ask me “What better practice I can follow if I am not using any framework or architecture”. From my thoughts, I would suggest you to make use of design patterns when ever you think they can be useful.
in final words, it’s better to get in-depth knowledge about every framework you find easier or some good framework like Cairngorm( I like it even if you dislike me because of it) or swiz. And when you are comfortable, and believe that the project needs some architecture -go for it.