Lately, I seem to develop a passion for articles that are inclined to start flame wars in their comments. The blog post I came across is quite old (at least for blog standards: it’s from January 13, 2006!) but it picks up a timeless theme: is it better to reuse code or reimplement? This time the author (Rick Copeland) gives us “three reasons why you shouldn’t write your own web framework”: waste of time of the developer, waste of time of all the other people looking for a web framework and diminished impact of the developers work. While all the points he discusses are perfectly reasonable and as a alternate solution he promotes to help out in existing open source frameworks, he doesn’t mention the fundamental principle beneath this article: you need do be an advanced and seasoned programmer. This is also resembled in the comments, since most of the responders seem to have difficulties reading other peoples code and adopting the programming style of a project. And then there is also the fear that one is left behind in the acknowledgements or is otherwise not as visible as creating a one man project. From a personal point of view, I’m compassionate about the difficulties people have reading other’s code, but being a good programmer means exactly being good at reviewing one’s own or other peoples code. So it makes pretty much sense to learn to read well (yes, it’s something different than writing!). The objections against contributing to a large(r) project based on the fear that one doesn’t get appropriate credits are really childish demeanor. The reputation one gains from being a good team player and a willing learner is much greater than the fame one gets from a one man project. Of course one gets more attention being the lead developer or the founder of a project, but how many are known to a broader public? Just those of large foundations – a status one will never acquire with a one man band. Go contribute!