In a recent post to his blog Anthony Ferrara takes a look at what he calls the "Framework Fixation" anit-pattern - that one of the first inclinations he sees is to use a framework when it may not be needed.

In this day in age, it seems that the community trend is completely and unequivocally trending towards the use of web application frameworks. So much so that the defacto first comment to someone asking how to do something seems to be "Just use a framework, and it'll solve the problem for you." While I completely understand why this is the case, I can't say that I agree with it. And while I do believe that frameworks serve a purpose, I think that they are vastly over-used. Let me explain why...

He starts off by describing what a framework is (its components, goals) and points out a few flaws in their use. These include the removal of emphasis on the setup/configuration/bootstrapping of the application (it's part of the architecture too!), how they can help (and hurt) in prototype situations, the myth of the shorter development time and that looking for "framework developers" that only know how to use the tool could hurt you in the long run.