We don't need comparisons. We need to see evolution. It's like the transitional species problem. We can always discover a startling fossil and [compare] them with the rest of our findings, but I believe we need to get better at understanding if we are seeing something [new].
The build system brings more consistency to the application: dev or prod mode, code optimization, resources management, logging, caching, etc.
The concepts inherited from Backbone are also evolved: - models are not just key->value (models in Hr could be really complex) - joints between models - views can used templates and sub-components - better events management for classes - and a lot more
(Sorry for my english, I'm french)
There is a clear initiative to most gracefully integrate/weave/combine Script Loaders and MV* frameworks for On-Demand Resources that give thoughtful memory/state management. These framework developers should explain how they are achieving this with their contributions, and why we should care.
Looks like hr.js includes most of these things out of the box and is built in a modular way with AMD modules (no more framework in one single file like Backbone). It looks like an amazing piece of work.
That being said, I have a couple of questions.
1) Why was this not build on top of Backbone.js? This way it could benefit of a battle tested codebase used in many production systems and the Backbone apps out there could immediately benefit from the added features by just adding a few new modules (instead of rewriting to use this framework). Many core parts look very similar to Backbone, at least Models, Views and Router/History, with useful extensions on top.
2) Why is the build tool not a separate project? While the framework looks useful, I don't want to switch to a new toolchain to be able to use it. Many people already have some preferred way of building their apps, be it Grunt, GNU Make, r.js optimizer, a combination of those or something different. A specialized build tool can add value to the framework (e.g. sensible defaults), but IMHO the framework should no have a lock-in to any particular build tool. Provide the build tool as a separate project, but let people also use whatever they like. This is the beauty of using standardized module systems such as AMD.
EDIT: Looks like you answered my first question in another thread, while I was writing this and Backbone core not being modular is a good argument to break apart from it. The second question still is open, though. Why not take modularity even further and separate the framework and build tool?
But we built HappyRhino to really simplify the creation of client-side application that can scale (modular, optimized, ...), and it seemed important for us, for having some consistency, we needed to built together the framework and the build tool. The build tool brings a lot to the client framework (a very simple example: caching uses revision number given by the build process).
But I really understand all the advantages of having build tool as a separate project. I have to think more about all of this before giving you more elements.
(Sorry for my english)
I'd love to see comparisons (as said in another comment). I like the idea of a grown-up Backbone. I'd like to see if there are any smart view rendering optimizations (like Ember has).
I'll work on improving the introduction of the documentation to add comparaisons with others frameworks.
Hr have a components-based rendering system: a view could be a component and component could be added directly from templates. http://friendcode.github.io/hr.js/#/template/components
I was wondering about the flexibility of templating engine and CSS preprocessing. It seems like hr.js is using it's own templating engine, which is ok and also LESS as a CSS preprocessor.
Is there a way to use something like Handlebars, ejs,... or maybe switch to Stylus or SASS? (is it just a matter or defining a css compiler in the build configuration)
Great work, keep it up.
The templating engine is the templating engine from underscore.js.
Thank you
I may actually give this a shot for a project of mine.
The only thing I couldn't find in the introduction was how hr.js interfaces with a backend for loading and storing models. Care to explain? One of my complaints against Backbone was that it tightly coupled models/collections to REST resources, which yoru framework seems not to do, and that's obviously a good thing.
