Build a Cool App
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My post yesterday struck a chord that many others were also hearing, as Andrei's post and the comments that followed it indicate.
Potential developers of new frameworks, take note: Your announcement will be followed by wholesale eyeball-rolling.
Stephan and the Stubbles folks feel that my reaction and Andrei's are somehow knee-jerk, and that if we really looked at their framework, we'd feel differently. Perhaps this is true, perhaps it's not. I can say that if I spent time browsing code for every new framework that came out, I'd never have time for anything else (what with three n00bs in the last couple of days).
What I always wonder when these things come out is: why are people pouring their talents and energies into frameworks that will probably never have a critical mass instead of building something cool with existing frameworks?
Yes, it's hard to build applications. There's all that unpleasant user interface work and design considerations to think about, and you actually need a relatively complete package before you can announce/release something. But, given the landscape of PHP frameworks, there is no less work to building the next "everybody uses it because it's so damn handy" application than there is to building the framework that everyone will eventually use.
Seriously.
Build a cool app. Forget about your own personal stamp on the framework world; you missed the boat on that one. But, if you want to make a mark, the world is wide open for new and cool applications. Pick an existing framework, start building your app, and contribute fixes back to that framework's community as you find shortcomings in your needs for your app.
OR, if you're not an application guy, and only feel comfortable with the plumbing, then pick a framework that has a shortcoming and fix that shortcoming. If you're afraid that your work will not be accepted, or that there will be too many contribution political hurdles, then pick another framework (there are plenty to choose from, after all).
We need better tools, and better applications. We DO NOT need more clean slate starts.