In this new post to his blog Jani Hartikainen wonders if "everything needs to be integrated into a framework".

There is occasionally people asking about things such as "Is there an integration for X in framework Y?" Then they are disappointed when it isn't, acting as if it's a really bad thing. But why do things need to be integrated to begin with?

He points out that other frameworks (ex. Ruby on Rails) have a lot of things integrated, but he doesn't agree that this should be the standard. He suggests that, by not having tools that are tightly coupled with the framework you're using, you open yourself up to a wider, possibly better range of external tools.

One could argue that integrated libraries give you a productivity boost. While it may be so, I think the main boost you get is the very first steps: It's easier to get started, but after that the benefit fades. In the long run, it may even turn into a poor investment in general, as you could have learned a general purpose tool instead.