Why I switched to Spine.js
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Why I switched to Spine.js
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#2The thing that makes Backbone unfriendly to noobs is its lack of prescribed structure. Personally I love this approach because I know Javascript pretty well, but I haven't written a ton of huge JS apps yet, so I'm still experimenting with ways of architecting them. Backbone provides a lot of essential functionality in a flexible way that forces me to think critically about how I want to structure the app. I see that frameworks like Angular and Ember give me more out of the box, but they impose a lot of structure which I am not sure about yet. I'm sure sometimes that structure is ideal and sometimes it may be the wrong tool for the job. Eventually after I build out more Backbone.js apps in different ways I'll be in a much better position to evaluate the more heavyweight frameworks.
It's not unlike how I fell in love with Rails immediately in 2005 having spent the previous 5 years working in PHP, it was obvious why Rails was the way it was. But without that prior lower-level experience I would have been more skeptical.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#3We just switched from backbone to angular. The thing that sold me was data-binding. You could write your own with backbone but it's done so why bother. Also the code reduction was about 1/3.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#4Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4002105
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#5This is the same reason I was turned off to backbone. Being a Rails guy, and a guy who takes 5 minutes to pick a candy out of the machine, I'm much more attracted to an opinionated framework, which is why I've jumped on the angular.js bandwagon.
In fact, on a current project me and another guy are building identical prototypes in angular and backbone to compare notes on which framework we end up going with. He's running into the same issues mentioned in this article - namely, trying to figure out just how he should structure things. Some people love that freedom and flexibility, others find it paralyzing.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#6+1 Backbone. For me the more open-ended approach has allowed space to try different approaches to see where they fail, and refactoring. This open-ended approach seems to jive well with the spirit of js, and has definitely made me a better dev.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#7We just switched from backbone to angular. The thing that sold me was data-binding. You could write your own with backbone but it's done so why bother. Also the code reduction was about 1/3.
You don't need to write your own data binding in backbone. Several smart developers have already written plugins for this very thing. I usually forget about backbone plugins when workin on a new problem, and get halfway down my thought process before remembering to check https://github.com/documentcloud/backbone/wiki/Extensions,-P.... To be fair, the backbone website does a terrible job of promoting these resources.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#8This is an old post, as Backbone's Ashkenas rebutted here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4003069
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#9The thing that makes Backbone unfriendly to noobs is its lack of prescribed structure. Personally I love this approach because I know Javascript pretty well, but I haven't written a ton of huge JS apps yet, so I'm still experimenting with ways of architecting them. Backbone provides a lot of essential functionality in a flexible way that forces me to think critically about how I want to structure the app. I see that…
"I'm sure sometimes that structure is ideal and sometimes it may be the wrong tool for the job. Eventually after I build out more Backbone.js apps in different ways I'll be in a much better position to evaluate the more heavyweight frameworks."
Somehow you saw immediate benefit in Rails in 2005, grokking that having defined structure coupled with out of the box functionality was a good starting point. Why do you not have the same reaction in the JavaScript world, instead feeling like you need to 'tough it out' for a few apps first?
Replace "backbone.js" with "php" and you get the argument I hear from PHP beginners and noobs as well. "After I do a few PHP projects really hacky and crappy, learning on my own as I go along, then I'll be able to judge the quality and useful of a mature framework". That's the reality of what happens to many (most?) devs, and they leave a mountain of legacy stuff behind that someone (sometimes themselves!) have to maintain for a long time.
Re: Why I switched to Spine.js
#10For #4, "Let’s say you fetched a record in one view of the app. Then you fetch and update that same record in a different view. In Spine.js, both records will update." This sounds like completely standard Backbone.js functionality to me. It just seems like the guy writing this post wasn't familiar enough with the framework to even begin making "why I switched" posts.