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Meteor Raises $20M

techcrunch.com

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Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#101

Post by AlisdairO »

aliakhtar wrote: post #100
murbard2 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure you remove the autopublish package, but then your app stops working. You need to explicitely publish what you want published, you need to explicitely check and validate every input from the client... and that's fine, but then what exactly have you gained from using meteor over, say, socket.io or autobahn? Fast prototyping, yes, you've definitely gained that, but have you gained anything else? I'm genuinely askin…

> I also don't know what you mean by "you express most of these in code". The problem isn't writing a piece of code that expresses that constraint... the problem is doing so without introducing a race condition! I agree, and this also exposes a weakness of javascript as a backend language. If you use Java/Scala, you have multithreading support and can sync the threads + concurrently verify that an item isn't being pu…

> If you use Java/Scala, you have multithreading support and can sync the threads + concurrently verify that an item isn't being purchased more than X times.

That does cause you to have a hard limit of one application server for the app, which can be a pretty big deal...

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#104

Post by oldmanjay »

nichochar wrote: post #44

I like meteor, I think it's a good framework, that solves well the "Make a webapp with non critical data but where real time is critical" problem. I've also used angular, which I also like, but has a little bit more of a learning curve drawback. I do unfortunately believe that a project or framework should make it not because it's CEO or leader is good at selling something, pitching VC's, and creating a brand, I thin…

In the long run, you'll probably be happier if you realize there are no "right" answers in software engineering. People who can't get past the belief that there is spend a lot of their time telling kids to get off their lawn.

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#105

Post by aliakhtar »

AlisdairO wrote: post #101
aliakhtar wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also don't know what you mean by "you express most of these in code". The problem isn't writing a piece of code that expresses that constraint... the problem is doing so without introducing a race condition! I agree, and this also exposes a weakness of javascript as a backend language. If you use Java/Scala, you have multithreading support and can sync the threads + concurrently verify that an item isn't being pu…

> If you use Java/Scala, you have multithreading support and can sync the threads + concurrently verify that an item isn't being purchased more than X times. That does cause you to have a hard limit of one application server for the app, which can be a pretty big deal...

No, you could have multiple servers talking to each other via something like ZooKeeper. But individually, each node/server would use multithreading to keep track of its state.

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#106

Post by DiNovi »

gooseus wrote: post #94
smaili wrote: post #59

Not trying to sound like a jerk, but I'm just wondering is it really a good thing to put on your homepage that there are nearly 12K questions posted on StackOverflow about Meteor? Seeing a number like that makes me wonder if maybe the documentation and or APIs are not very well done if it's generated that kind of activity on SO.

Maybe you're right and everyone else on this comment thread are suffering from some cognitive dissonance? I'd be willing to bet much of those SO questions and replies are a part of keeping up the Meteor hype with most questions being answered by a core group of devs. The PR machine for Meteor is crazy. It's funny because this 20M will go to generating more hype and PR opportunities, while the actual development will…

I was under the impression most of the meteor devs work for meteor?

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#107

Post by DiNovi »

afandian wrote: post #45
sergiotapia wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do yourself a favor and set aside a weekend to go through this book: https://www.discovermeteor.com/ All of your questions are answered there.

As an onlooker that's discouraging. Can you give one-line answers to the points above?

Cant tell if this is sarcasm or not :P

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#108

Post by gooseus »

rralian wrote: post #97
gooseus wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaining traction because of the venture capital hype juice I mentioned. There are lots of open-source and "viable" web frameworks out there. People want Meteor because it makes a lot of promises regarding productivity, but (as the presence of this article and multiple comments prove) the real interest is in a framework that has money for continued development. So without the financial backing Meteor is just another o…

> People want Meteor because it makes a lot of promises regarding productivity, but (as the presence of this article and multiple comments prove) the real interest is in a framework that has money for continued development. I can't speak for others, but the reason I find meteor interesting is because it's one of the only frameworks to address isomorphic javascript, and because it has some really interesting realtime…

What about "isomorphic javascript" needs to be addressed? That was a term that almost seems invented as a problem for Meteor to solve. The fact that code in completely different environments (browser vs server) needs to look different is not something that needs to be addressed.

A) With financial backing Meteor is an open-source framework which MUST provide an ROI for those backers.

B) Read the comments, the reason Meteor is more hyped is because it is funded. The reason people use to justify the enormous investment in building a production app with Meteor is based on it being funded. Take away the funding and you take away a compelling reason to use it... so if that reason is removed after you have already invested, you have lost on your investment.

Meteor was not the right tool for the job, but good luck trying to have that conversation with a Meteor evangelist. Just like any other evangelist they're pragmatic when it suits their argument and dogmatic whenever it doesn't.

In closing, I'm not against Meteor as a tool. I love tools and I love a lot of the concepts in Meteor (not isomorphism, that is a fools errand).

What I don't love are people/companies that misrepresent themselves and put more money into sounding good than they do into actual being good.

My experience using Meteor was resoundingly negative and yet negative experiences are shouted down while positive ones are lauded. The "maybe it didn't suit your use case" only comes up when I show I'm willing to stick to my guns and articulate myself.

Want to convince me Meteor is really dedicated to being a great and lasting web framework and not just a cash grab? Why don't you put an article to the front page of HN describing the use cases that Meteor ISN'T good for?

You admit they exist, so why not, right? They could learn a ton about their product while being brutally honest about its limitations with the community they want to win over.

Of course, it'll never happen, because Meteor isn't really a community project to build the next best framework. It's an investment vehicle and no investor would ever willingly let doubt be shined on their investment vehicle.

Re: Meteor Raises $20M

#109

Post by aliakhtar »

For those who're looking for a full stack framework, I can't recommend GWT enough. GWT lets you write java for both client & server, and then compiles the client code to javascript. This compiled js is highly optimized and your css / images / html templates are bundled together to minimize HTTP requests. On the server side, this lets you use java which is a lot more performant than javascript is.
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