Libraries and frameworks

The rest of this chapter will make more sense if we get some terminology straight. Cordova/PhoneGap apps will often make use of multiple utility libraries and usually one User Interface (UI) framework, though some frameworks also tend to blur the line between the two distinctions (I'll refer to these as mixed frameworks).

Utility libraries are intended to provide one or more features that make coding hybrid apps easier (things like object models, MVC/MVVM classes, templating functions, data binding features, and so on). Some utility libraries focus on providing one feature, while others package these features together. Most are typically quite small and aren't terribly opinionated.

Utility frameworks, on the other hand, provide several features packaged together; for example, a single framework might supply templating, data binding, routing, and much more in a single framework. These tend to be larger, and also tend to be a somewhat more opinionated with regard to...