Morgan,

Frameworks, like MM are needed because the .NET Framework doesn't and probably never will have all the abstractions needed by real world applications.

The .NET Framework is a great low level framework for implementing applications. However, the .NET Framework has no concept of a business object or a business rule. These are higher level abstractions that Microsoft, and others, say an application needs but the .Net Framework provides no structure for creating them. MM provides a framework for building these types of objects and using them to build applications.

Computer programming is all about creating higher abstractions to accomplish more with less effort. If we take your arguments to the extreme why aren't you coding in IL? Thats were all the real work gets done.

See also: http://fox.wikis.com/wc.dll?Wiki~FrameworksBuildOrBuy

?jMM

>I'm really curious about this, and I have been for a while. So I hope you don't take it wrong.
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>I was just wondering why people would use a commercial framework for anything but small projects?
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>Do you have people using it for larger projects? It seems like a crutch to learning the .NET Framework or whatever framework it is using. For something, small where you did to get a product out right away it seems ideal, but for a large application that will be used for years, it seems to have more potential problems then benefits.
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>If the author of the Commercial Framework decides to go in one direction and you don't like it, you are pretty much stuck. Besides the licensing fees which aren't much if you are selling large products, it seems to keep you away from really learning the inner workings, quirks of the .NET Framework. So if you ever need to do something outside of the commerical framework, or need to get around a problem or change the functionality of the commerical framework, you don't really know the .NET Framework well enough to understand what needs to be tweaked or changed.
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>I mean, some people could use the Commercial framework and still learn the subtle nuasances of .NET Framework but it seems unlikely and redundant for a commerical framework user. Also, if you are doing a large scale project, I would think you would want to create you own framework as you go along so you can get the exact functionality you want instead of having yet another middle men (the commerical framework) between you and your application. It seems like you are handcuffing yourself to the commerical framework, and the recent trend in software seems to be as flexible as possible. That was why .NET has so many languages available.
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>I'm just curious, maybe I don't understand the uses of Commerical frameworks, but I thought you might be able to answer my curosity Kevin.
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>Thanks in advance,
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>Morgan