LASG = A framework?

I was approached by a developer to comment about the usage of some frameworks in his project. After providing my comments, I told him that I do not use the frameworks that he had mentioned and he immediately said, "Oh! I forgot, you only use LASG". I was stunt for a moment. Probing further, I managed to discover how LASG was being perceived (somewhat wrongly) by some developers in the community.

Firstly, I discovered that the developer had compared LASG with MVC (some had previously compared it with ADO.NET Entity Framework). MVC and EF are both "code-frameworks" that share the same goal as LASG which is to simplify software development but uses a completely different category of approach. I would say, MVC and EF are what (true and real) code-frameworks should be.

LASG is not a code-framework but only a simple (humble) automation tool. It does not contain any APIs or Application Blocks that requires a developer to learn or use. It is just a combination of project templates and code-generators that simplifies development tasks. These tasks can very well be hand-coded if one wishes to do it. Therefore, I feel that getting started with LASG is (should be) much simpler and easier as compared to learning a code-framework.

To prove a point, you can completely disassociated LASG from your Solution and Project templates at any time and your code will still compile and run. You can uninstall LASG from your machine after you have generated all the code and your code will still compile and run. [Warning: If you disassociate LASG from your projects, you will not be able to re-associate it back. Hey! It has feelings too you know! :p].

I also understand that this confusion is also partially my fault. For the veterans who knew me previously, I wrote a RAD framework called Paladin and to accelerate the adoption, I developed a simple code-generator on top of the framework. That was the time when people proclaimed that Paladin was a code-generator but I refuted and said it was a framework. Now almost 10 years after that, I created something simpler like LASG and people now have the perception that it was something complex like my previous attempt. *HeHe*

So, is LASG still a framework? If I follow Microsoft Patterns & Practices' (or the industry) terminology, LASG is somewhat like a software-factory - a very basic one I would say (All great things start with a baby step). Afterall, it does provide guidance and recipes to build software and you can adapt it to any compatible code-frameworks (if you are creative enough). If we must have the word "framework" attached to it, I will call it an "Architecture Framework".

Still confused? Why don't you download it first and then tell me? ^_^