Just a list of frameworks. Yeah, I know jQuery is rad, but I was hoping to see some actual advice on the prototyping process, as opposed to the coding process.

I am planning to do that. I just posted a quick background story and overview as soon as I had done with the marathon. More to come.

For the rails kids, we have Bort (http://github.com/fudgestudios/bort/tree/master)

for the merb grown-ups, merb 1.0 now has a well factored authentication framework. The docs/howtos are still a little rough, but I've just gone through migrating my existing app which had mature hand-rolled User model, session management, and registration process. With the new merb auth code, I've just dropped quite a bit of code.

also +1 for Blueprint CSS as well. This finally got me out of CSS hell.

Next step: use some simple data mining to recommend other movies I might like, and link to a site where I can watch/buy.

Yes! Exactly what is at the top of my list.

There are a lot items at the top of your list!

I really shouldn't nitpick-- particularly on something thrown together in a week by one person-- but I can't resist: I bet you'd double the fraction of people looking at the site who actually build a list if it lets you start building a list before signing up. After I've built one you can remind me that I should sign up if I want to keep it.

Its much better to let people get their feet wet with out jumping through the hoop of a sign-up.

Ah totally cool suggestion, thanks. And easily doable with anonymous sessions. Will note it down.

I agree that jQuery is a perfect tool for JavaScript programming. And I loved JavaScript after I learned this simple and powerful library.

As cool and useful as Pinax is, calling it "well documented" isn't entirely accurate considering the fact that there is barely any documentation to speak of.

Yep, that was a bit overenthusiastic of me. But I noticed they are improving the documentation fast. It is a very young project after all.

Maybe I could rephrase "well documented" in: given the clarity and the good structure of the code I did not have problems finding my way around.

I agree. It's not that it's extensively documented; it's that the code is easy enough to hack to one's needs ;)

What's everyones take on using something like Pinax where a lot of things are done and bundled up for you?

I've never been a huge fan of this approach. I like Django because it removes some of the annoying parts of creating a web app, but I don't like when the user registration, commenting, profiles, avatars, and more site-specific functionality like "groups/message boards" are pre-built for me

Recently pinax added a basic_project in addition to a complete_project.

In the basic project fewer things are provided, like registration with openid support and email validation. In addition there's a structure to create your menus and submenus.

So far I found it a very good starting point for my development and not obtrusive at all.

For prototyping we just starting using Axure. http://axure.com/

Adobe has a Thermo but it's still in labs. http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo

Stories like this suggest that the probability of finding someone in India to do the coding of a complex web app will soon be under $1000.

Durdn: just so you know, diffract.me has a typo:

At present we are not ready for public consuption, early early pre-alpha