It seems to me that any good framework should take into account the possibility of running multiple applications using the famework IMHO this is one area where rails is severely deficient. I would start with the rails framework because it covers so many bases. With any application you will need a lib, configuration, logs, tests etc and rails has all of that covered. I am also thinking that virtually every application worth writing will need some sort of database access even if it's via sqlite so once again rails rulez there. Same with emails. So think of a super rails hierarch. There is a top level domain where libraries, gems, logs, and configuration go. Inside there is a directory for each appliation with it's own logs, configurations etc. The lower levels override the upper ones (uless there is some sort of a no override flag?). Maybe some OS specific stuff too like gems/win32 and gems/linux so the binaries get sorted right too. Mmmmm.. Looking a bit like Zope isn't it?