
Technology Radar May 2013 - ABS
http://www.thoughtworks.com/radar
======
dadro
I'd like to read what specifically lead them to categorize Backbone.js under
"hold". They wrote about the various technologies that are recommended but
don't provide much of a narrative for any of the "holds".

~~~
jamesRaybould
If you dig back to the last tech radar
([http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-
oc...](http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-
october-2012.pdf)) you'll find the narrative for why Backbone.js was moved to
the 'hold' category.

~~~
sidupadhyay
Thanks! Here's the specific section on backbone from page 11:

Backbone.js is a great example of an abstraction pushed too far. While we
initially liked the ease of wire-up, in practice it suffers from the same
issues as all such databound frameworks from WebForms to client/server tools.
We find that it blurs the framework and model too much, forcing either bad
architectural decisions or elaborate framework hackery in order to preserve
sanity.

~~~
ollieglass
They go on to say:

 _As the industry shifted from desktop GUI development to the web, it seemed
natural to port the most successful patterns and designs to the new paradigm.
After 15 years of trying, we feel that there are still no component-based
frameworks that have successfully achieved this. We recommend not attempting
to make web development into something that it fundamentally is not. It is
time to accept the page and request-based nature of the web, and focus on the
frameworks that support - rather than work against - these concepts._

This seems reasonable, but single page apps don't have a page and request-
based nature, and Backbone seems a good fit for this case.

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lifeisstillgood
Is it just me or are a large number of their recommendations have no
commentary at all?

For example what is "Aggregates as documents" and why is it top?

~~~
xaritas
It is a bit terse. There is a very easy to miss show/hide details link in each
section, but it does seem to omit mention of this technique. I think it is
talking about using aggregations of data as documents in NoSQL databases. See
<http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DDD_Aggregate.html> and
<http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AggregateOrientedDatabase.html>

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mark_l_watson
Always a great read. Strong recommendation for Clojure but just an Assess for
Clojurescript. I would have liked to see some specific recommendations for
Clojure tooling and frameworks.

Also interesting to see a strong recommendation for Sinatra but no mention at
all for Rails. I agree with Sinatra's awesomeness, but was surprised to see
noting on Rails.

~~~
mgm
Because we have so many blips we fade old ones or items that we feel are no
longer worth highlighting. We like Rails but most of our readers know that and
so we no longer include it on the Radar.

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swah
Go is not on their radar yet!

~~~
alipang
but that would conflict with their own continuous integration system...
<http://www.thoughtworks-studios.com/go-continuous-delivery>

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josh2600
Just a quick reminder: if you only use the popular tools you might miss the
perfect weapon for your use case.

Finding the right tools isn't an arranged marriage, it's a continuously
evolving affair with twists and turns like a good novel.

Thanks for puttin this together. Always interesting to read what others think
is "hot".

------
davidw
Adopt MongoDB? I thought people were starting to realize that it's not so "web
scale" after all.

~~~
jabbernotty
What people are now realizing is that MongoDB is not a one-size-fits-all
technology.

~~~
mgm
When we put something into "Adopt" we feel that its usage patterns and general
"fit" are well known. We feel that's the case for Mongo -- it doesn't fit in
all cases, but when appropriate it's absolutely a solid go-to platform. More
industry awareness around when Mongo is the wrong choice actually makes it
_easier_ to adopt.

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lifeisstillgood
PostgreSQL for NoSQL

Hell yes, trialling here soon!

