I’ve heard this argument over the years many times. It’s actually a hard discussion to have the more general the terms that are used. What exactly is a “Framework”? When does a library cross the boundary and become a Framework? What is the original author’s definition of “develop software”? That perspective matters here, because if what he’s saying is create a novel solution to a problem that hasn’t been solved before, that is a lot different from creating a webservice that inserts or retrieves some data from a database. Frameworks are essentially just a tool to get the job done. Some are better than others, and they come in all sizes. You really have to get specific to have a discussion like this that makes sense. If I tasked a Java developer with building a webservice that took some information and put in a database, I could reasonably expect them to use some implementation of jax-ws or jax-rs. If used properly those frame works are very powerful and convenient. Most implementations are well documented, and the communities around them are vast and experienced. Assuming the programmer was relatively experienced and had somehow never heard of either of those frameworks, I might expect some kind of servlet solution (arguably still a framework). Now if what the author is saying is that building a webservice isn’t development, that’s a different discussion. Many paths are heavily traveled. Using a Framework if you have to follow one of them is taking advantage of the knowledge gained by a large number of people that have already made the trip.