By TC Sprencel

If the terms “Model View Controller” and “URL Mapping” are to you what “paper” and “plastic” are to the local grocery store bagger, then South by Southwest has a panel for you. If, on the other hand, “Content Management Systems” and “Caching” are as clear to you as the finer points of quantum physics, well, you might want to attend the panel anyway.

South by Southwest will feature “Web Framework Battle Royale,” a discussion which promises to delight everyone – from the geekiest of programmers to those who think HTML is an extremely large shirt size. Leah Culver, a programmer with the social media-savvy company Six Apart, will head the panel.

Web frameworks, in the simplest of terms, are tools that assist in the construction of dynamic websites, enabling user input and interactivity. According to Culver, “most web frameworks don’t interfere much with the design of the website. Mostly they are intended to make the request/response process easier by handling URL routing, form processing, templating etc.” She also points out that although the title of the panel suggests a war between popular frameworks, “The competition aspect of the panel is really for fun. I don’t think there is a clear “best” web framework. I think there may be a “best framework for the job,” and I hope each audience member is able to determine for themselves which tool is best for their project based on the information presented.”

As website interactivity and user-created content have developed into the gold standard of internet communication, the critical importance of tools such as web frameworks has become undeniable. Culver, relating the necessity of frameworks to the SxSW panel which she will head, says, “There’s a point when starting a new website that you need to choose the tools for building that site. Maybe you go with the tools you already know or maybe you want to try out something new. The purpose of the panel is mainly to learn about a variety of web frameworks and expose some of their useful features,” assuring that “Web Framework Battle Royale” will be a very informative and appropriate panel discussion.