Ask HN: How does a beginner navigate the JavaScript MVC jungle? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How does a beginner navigate the JavaScript MVC jungle?

21 pointsekpyrotic5 comments

HN, I am an average programmer. When I have time outside my day-to-day occupation, I develop webapps on the side. I usually develop in some combination of JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, and SQL.

I want to move over to some dedicated JavaScript solution (using the MVC architecture pattern). I've been meaning to do so for a while, and over that time I have read a number of introductions to the various frameworks, i.e., Backbone, Angular, Meteor. And have a passing acquaintance with a few.

But now that I want to develop a new product, I don't where to start with this fragmented JavaScript jungle. Do you have advice on:

(1) The best MVC for beginners;

(2) The best place to start with databases;

(3) Essential reading;

(4) General information/advice.

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I am also trying to navigate the same jungle for a new project. Here's what I could find in the last few days. I am not an experienced programmer likewise, so take this with a grain of salt.

1) I would argue this is a close call between Angular and Ember, and I personally picked Angular, mostly for philosophical reasons. I am sure Ember is just as good, it just doesn't work as well for me. [1]

2) SQLite is good for personal projects, as far as I know. It's a little too accepting of faults in your code, but when you want to get up and running as soon and painlessly as possible, it does the job. Otherwise use Postgres.

3) Angular has a list of good video tutorials at [2], though other than this and the official site, I have yet to find any good documentation. Which might either be my lack of Google-fu or a genuine need.

4) If you understand what MVC is and if you have coded with Javascript before, it should be easy to pick up. Pay attention to file structure, the scope, best practices, as especially with Javascript being a permissive language it's very easy to get away with low quality code that'll hurt you badly later. Have test coverage.

[1] http://blog.wekeroad.com/2013/03/06/ember-confuses-me

[2] http://egghead.io

"Journey Through The JavaScript MVC Jungle"

http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/07/27/journey-throug...

An open source Backbone book:

https://github.com/addyosmani/backbone-fundamentals

And a free lesson in Backbone from Code School after signing up for Coderbits... (usually $30)

https://coderwall.com/p/dwqwvw

Addy Osmani also has a great site that does the same todo list app in many different MV*'s:

https://github.com/addyosmani/todomvc

That should be a good start!

I've been reading "JavaScript Web Applications" by Alex MacCaw and it provides a great introduction to MVC and a number of popular client-side frameworks. It also contains a ton of best practice advice for general JavaScript development. Definitely worth checking out.

http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920018421.do

FWIW, I‘ve seen several recommendations for “Essential ActionScript 2.0” by Colin Moock, which has a chapter on MVC. ActionScript is of course a useless language nowadays, but the explanation looks pretty useful so far (I haven’t finished going through it).

angular is amazing. way less code needed.

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