Chris Anstey has a new post to his blog with some of his suggestions to framework developers out there (those writing frameworks, not writing applications with them). He mentions some of the criteria he believes frameworks should have.

A framework provides you with many of the common components required to develop a website - for example, database access, templating systems and authorization systems. [...] These frameworks are all open source - which means that anyone can review and suggest improvements to the code. Using a framework provides you with many benefits.

He suggests that a framework should be:

• Time-saving
• Reliable
• Adherent to well-structured patterns
• Fostering a good community
• Not too difficult to learn
• Well-performing (and easy to extend with something like caching)