Development frameworks, in the loosest sense of the term, do a good job of preventing developers from having to reinvent the wheel each time they begin a new project. Each project naturally calls for a different starting point dependent upon what the end result should be. Drupal, I think, begins at a pretty high level of done-ness.

I should think that it is a given that frameworks currently in use by any sizable community offer this basic benefit to the degree which it is designed to. I think, then, that frameworks need to be judged on what I see to be an almost equally important factor: its ability to prevent developers from boxing themselves in, or over-engineering their application.

I really, really wanted to love my Nexus One and Android. I did, for awhile.

The Nexus One is a beautiful device. The screen is beautiful. The design is beautiful. The scroll wheel is a little useless except for when you're on the command line but it's fun to fiddle with. I really adore the taskbar workflow which makes a ton of sense for me. Having apps run in the background and the taskbar/way that Android surfaces information was the main reason that I purchased it to replace my original iPhone. I still think that the Nexus One is the more grown-up device in that way.

Kids, if the theme you're working on ever looks like this, its time to throw it away and start fresh.

Why:

Because having this many page tpls completely defeats the purpose of having a template system at all. Making a change to the structural markup of the page is going to take two dozen copy and pastes as opposed to one simple change. It's a complete nightmare to maintain and is indicative of the CSS and architecture of the site being less than ideal - probably a LOT less.

I've long said that there is a whole lot of feel-goodery in the Drupal community. It's taken me awhile to come to appreciate this fact, but I have in my own way. When I say feel-goodery, I mean that people are, for the most part, diplomatic and patient to a fault. There is a general sense of goodwill and a whole lot of back-patting. Which is great. It's infectious.

I, however, am totally not that person. I like to think of myself as a friendly person who gives credit where it is due and typically makes a net positive contribution to anything I involve myself in; which is a decision that I never take lightly. Something I lack that many in the community possess is diplomacy. When there are names to be named, I name them. If there is something that is on the collective mind but is not a palatable thing to say, I say it. It is for this reason that I don't get as involved in the Drupal NYC community as I would like to be.