>BTW, I just want to mention the success of Accountmate Accounting Software, >they did not use quality frameworks at all, but rather they started from the >groundup.
Accountmate did use a framework, it's just one they developed in house. Accountmates situtation doesn't really compare to the average consultant or even corporate developer for a couple of reasons. 1st of all, they started development while Visual FoxPro 3.0 was still in Alpha testing, so there weren't any frameworks available at the time. Secondly, they have a large development team and were able to assign some of their developers specifically to creating and maintaining the framework that the rest of the developers would ultimately use. IOW, sure, when you have the resources & expertise to develop your own framework and when there aren't any frameworks available, then of course it makes perfect sense to develop your own framework.