Hey student,

Great question! Deciding when to use a library vs. a framework is a decision you will face with any project.

This is how I like to think about it:

A library is like a toolbox in that a library may offer tons of tools, but you have the freedom to pick and choose only the tools you need. In this sense, a library is considered a little more "light weight" since you're only using the pieces you want, and you have more control of what's happening and how things happen in your application. It's sort of like just picking up an external hard drive and dragging and dropping your phone's photos to the hard drive to back them up.

With a framework, you usually have to do things in the way of the framework, so some consider this a little more restrictive and "heavy weight." Sometimes you lose a little control of how things happen, but as long as you "follow the rules" of the framework, you might be able to achieve your result a little faster or easier. It's sort of like buying an iPhone, a Mac, and subscribing to iCloud in order to get your photos backed up... as long as you follow the rules, it just works!

- Mentor