Is it even fair to do a straight comparison? Each has their own plusses and minuses I'm assuming - I'm actually quite ignorant on the topic. Can anyone provide a brief breakdown of pros/cons over each.
Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
11–20 of 77 posts
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#12I think the obvious reason for Backbone and larger teams is that larger teams are more likely to be working on projects that have been around "a while" (being defined as say, more than a year). A year ago, Backbone was clearly a more popular choice. I didn't see anything in the article that corrected for that.
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#13I wouldn't draw a strong conclusion about 'larger' startups using Backbone instead of Angular based on this data. There is probably some high correlation between a startup's size and age... Older startups are likely to be larger, and are likely to have started their stack using the popular framework of the time (Backbone). Newer startups will be smaller, and were founded at a time when new frameworks (e.g. Angular) a…
You may well be right but just to add a small data point in the other direction: I'm solo founding a new start up right now and chose to go with Marionette (which is essentially Backbone + some very handy batteries). Its been bliss (and this is coming from a backend guy who normally loathes frontend programming in JS).
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#14On a recent project I used pjax, because it was way simpler to figure out what the heck was going on, and it did not have a bunch of extra stuff that was difficult. Angular seemed very nice - until I tried to do something that it did not foresee and... wow... things get complicated really fast when you do that.
What were you trying to do?
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#15On a recent project I used pjax, because it was way simpler to figure out what the heck was going on, and it did not have a bunch of extra stuff that was difficult. Angular seemed very nice - until I tried to do something that it did not foresee and... wow... things get complicated really fast when you do that.
I've found that when Angular starts to fight back, you need to rethink your assumptions. It's very opinionated.
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#16I've played with both and I honestly still don't feel comfortable with computing the view on the client side instead of in my code on the server.
Most of the form factors we use regularly to access HTML5 type applications are in flux. Today we see the latest quad-core Snapdragon that screams across the silicon leaving empty battery cells in its wake. Tomorrow may be a battery friendly OS that sacrifices resources in your hand for a lower point of entry cost-wise for the non-technical user.
If you are using client side JS to build your views, you take a risk not knowing what the end user may be experiencing. Why take the risk at all and let the known variables of your own infrastructure deal with that workload?
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#17I wouldn't draw a strong conclusion about 'larger' startups using Backbone instead of Angular based on this data. There is probably some high correlation between a startup's size and age... Older startups are likely to be larger, and are likely to have started their stack using the popular framework of the time (Backbone). Newer startups will be smaller, and were founded at a time when new frameworks (e.g. Angular) a…
You may well be right but just to add a small data point in the other direction: I'm solo founding a new start up right now and chose to go with Marionette (which is essentially Backbone + some very handy batteries). Its been bliss (and this is coming from a backend guy who normally loathes frontend programming in JS).
Same. FWIW, I have used Backbone for a bunch of past projects (personal as well as large-scale apps for work). In my latest projects in both, I'm using Marionette on top of Backbone and I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it's working out when managing a complex SPA. I really appreciate Angular and what it's doing but every time I've tried to use it, it hasn't been the right fit. I'm hopeful for it though. Maybe eventually I can find a useful application for it!
Backbone is doing a good job thus far establishing itself as a decent and reliable JS framework. Marionette addresses the specific pain points of view and event management in a larger app that Backbone leaves up to you out of the box.
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solving problems is part of writing software.
Which is only partly true. Better way of putting this; why don't startups write their web apps in x86 assembly? Because not having problems in the first place is the sign of a 'good' programmer.
Which is also only partly true.
Good teams know when something needs less abstraction, to be sure. The same can also be said about the known knowns of what you are dealing with, and minimizing the risk involved with being ahead of the curve.
If using Backbone and/or Angular is not directly beneficial to the end user, I wouldn't recommend it on the projects I've worked on. That's not to say I would be against it; I just have found that in cases where I could have recommended it, it was for the benefit of the team instead.
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#19I think the obvious reason for Backbone and larger teams is that larger teams are more likely to be working on projects that have been around "a while" (being defined as say, more than a year). A year ago, Backbone was clearly a more popular choice. I didn't see anything in the article that corrected for that.
Please see my response to this issue here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6128668
Re: Angular or Backbone: what are startups using?
#20We're currently undergoing a complete frontend re-write (after we have proved with prototype we can make money) using Angular and I must say it's been an emotional rollercoaster with plenty of love and hate, but at the end of the day, love wins hands down. I haven't used much Backbone, so you could say I'm biased, but the truth is that Angular really teaches HTML new tricks (directives) which can save you days (or weeks) of development.
We're pairing it with Breeze (http://www.breezejs.com/) in order to preload all the entities when user logs in - hopefully achieving 0 waiting time when user clicks around. This part hasn't started yet, but I'm planning a series of blog posts once done.