fauxton: why backbone?

[Benoit Chesneau <bc...@gmail.com>]

I see that couchdb is using backbone and I am curious of the reason for it
over angular for example? Just curious about it since I need to make a
choice for some code I want to build.


- benoit

Re: fauxton: why backbone?

[Garren Smith <ga...@apache.org>]

I think Sue has summed it up really nicely. It depends on what frameworks/libraries you are comfortable with and how large the application is going to be. Using backbone you will most likely have to write a fair bit more "boilerplate" code.
One other library to checkout is react.js (http://facebook.github.io/react/) Its got some really interesting ideas. You can combine this quite nicely with Backbone to get quite a powerful framework.

Cheers
Garren


On 29 Jan 2014, at 7:48 PM, Sue <de...@gmail.com> wrote:

> The backbone choice as already made before I came onto the project, but
> after working with it over the past year I love it.
> 
> I wouldn't actually call Backbone a framework. It's more like a utility
> library for making your own framework. There are plugins you can get like
> Marionette, which will give you more robust features. Alone, it's very
> small and simple.
> 
> If you're looking for ideas of what to use on your own project, I think it
> all depends on what you are planning to build and the skillsets of your
> team. There is nothing wrong with using Angular.js or Ember.js to build an
> app.
> 
> Angular is very easy to use and requires little ramp up time for developers
> of all skill levels. Angular comes with databinding which is great.  It's
> very focused on DOM manipulation.  I want to say it's very 'jQuery'-like,
> but as a metaphor for how easy it is for someone to use it.
> 
> Backbone + underscore/lodash is more focused on data manipulation. I know
> that Russell was drawn to it at from the begining because it's very
> unopinionated about how you write your code. When you start building with
> it, you'll notice that no one does things the same way, which can be very
> frustrating when you're new and trying to figure things out.  I recomend
> that you just read the documentation & the source code.
> 
> If you do decide you want to use backbone, Garren and I can give you some
> tips on best practices and good js patterns to use.
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 10:58 AM, Simon Metson <si...@cloudant.com> wrote:
> 
>> Hey,
>> 
>> 
>> On Wednesday, 29 January 2014 at 15:52, Benoit Chesneau wrote:
>> 
>>> I see that couchdb is using backbone and I am curious of the reason for
>> it
>>> over angular for example? Just curious about it since I need to make a
>>> choice for some code I want to build.
>>> 
>> 
>> The choice was made for a few reasons:
>> * more established
>> * larger community
>> * great docs
>> * experience with the tool for the folk doing the work
>> 
>> These things were all true at the time we started, not sure if we'd do
>> things different today - Sue/Garren/Russell should comment further - but I
>> think it has resulted in a maintainable code base that we can build on
>> quickly despite it being fairly large/complex.
>> Cheers
>> Simon
>> 
>> 

Re: fauxton: why backbone?

[Sue <de...@gmail.com>]

The backbone choice as already made before I came onto the project, but
after working with it over the past year I love it.

I wouldn't actually call Backbone a framework. It's more like a utility
library for making your own framework. There are plugins you can get like
Marionette, which will give you more robust features. Alone, it's very
small and simple.

If you're looking for ideas of what to use on your own project, I think it
all depends on what you are planning to build and the skillsets of your
team. There is nothing wrong with using Angular.js or Ember.js to build an
app.

Angular is very easy to use and requires little ramp up time for developers
of all skill levels. Angular comes with databinding which is great.  It's
very focused on DOM manipulation.  I want to say it's very 'jQuery'-like,
but as a metaphor for how easy it is for someone to use it.

Backbone + underscore/lodash is more focused on data manipulation. I know
that Russell was drawn to it at from the begining because it's very
unopinionated about how you write your code. When you start building with
it, you'll notice that no one does things the same way, which can be very
frustrating when you're new and trying to figure things out.  I recomend
that you just read the documentation & the source code.

If you do decide you want to use backbone, Garren and I can give you some
tips on best practices and good js patterns to use.



On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 10:58 AM, Simon Metson <si...@cloudant.com> wrote:

> Hey,
>
>
> On Wednesday, 29 January 2014 at 15:52, Benoit Chesneau wrote:
>
> > I see that couchdb is using backbone and I am curious of the reason for
> it
> > over angular for example? Just curious about it since I need to make a
> > choice for some code I want to build.
> >
>
> The choice was made for a few reasons:
>  * more established
>  * larger community
>  * great docs
>  * experience with the tool for the folk doing the work
>
> These things were all true at the time we started, not sure if we'd do
> things different today - Sue/Garren/Russell should comment further - but I
> think it has resulted in a maintainable code base that we can build on
> quickly despite it being fairly large/complex.
> Cheers
> Simon
>
>

Re: fauxton: why backbone?

[Simon Metson <si...@cloudant.com>]

Hey,  


On Wednesday, 29 January 2014 at 15:52, Benoit Chesneau wrote:

> I see that couchdb is using backbone and I am curious of the reason for it
> over angular for example? Just curious about it since I need to make a
> choice for some code I want to build.
>  

The choice was made for a few reasons:
 * more established
 * larger community
 * great docs
 * experience with the tool for the folk doing the work

These things were all true at the time we started, not sure if we’d do things different today - Sue/Garren/Russell should comment further - but I think it has resulted in a maintainable code base that we can build on quickly despite it being fairly large/complex.  
Cheers
Simon