first sentence:
"You need a solid knowledge of JavaScript, familiarity with Backbone, Ruby, HAML, SASS and CoffeeScript to find this writeup useful."
Feels like an awful lot of prereqs for a starter. I don't expect to be spoon-fed JavaScript basics, but I feel like too many Backbone guides presume some understanding of Backbone before starting with something that is supposed to help you learn Backbone. Just a minor frustration of mine.
If you're going to study Backbone, it might be better to just study Backbone, using standard HTML/CSS/JS instead of HAML/SASS/Coffee. That would simplify the prereqs a bit and make it a little more accessible. But on the other hand, if you're at the point where you have a practical need to learn Backbone, it's sort of assumed that you're a web developer and should already be familiar with HAML, SASS, and Coffee. So I guess it's a judgement call by the author.
I agree.
That's like saying a web developer should be familiar with Ruby.
Unless you've made a conscious decision to use it, there's no reason to assume that you're familiar with the tools in question.
For what it's worth, I can see myself needing Backbone (or something similar) for what I'm working on, but there's no way I'll be using CoffeeScript.