Web. Free. Community. Bestpractices. Scala. The Joel on Software Discussion Group - Why I Hate Frameworks. I'm currently in the planning stages of building a hosted Java web application (yes, it has to be Java, for a variety of reasons that I don't feel like going into right now).
In the process, I'm evaluating a bunch of J2EE portlet-enabled JSR-compliant MVC role-based CMS web service application container frameworks. And after spending dozens of hours reading through feature lists and documentation, I'm ready to gouge out my eyes. Let's pretend I've decided to build a spice rack. I've done small woodworking projects before, and I think I have a pretty good idea of what I need: some wood and a few basic tools: a tape measure, a saw, a level, and a hammer. If I were going to build a whole house, rather than just a spice rack, I'd still need a tape measure, a saw, a level, and a hammer (among other things).