

Google Trends: Javascript Frameworks - aespinoza
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5&q=angular.js%20%2B%20angularjs%20%2B%20%22angular%20js%22%2C%20ext.js%20%2B%20%20extjs%2B%20%22ext%20js%22%2C%20backbone.js%20%2B%20%20backbonejs%20%2B%20%22backbone%20js%22%2C%20ember.js%20%2B%20emberjs%20%2B%20%22ember%20js%22%2C%20knockout.js%20%2B%20knockoutjs%20%2B%20%22knockout%20js%22&cmpt=q

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canthonytucci
I feel like these numbers may be skewed due to Ext's miserable documentation
and inconsistent behavior. There simply isn't much good ext related info out
there once you want to do anything complex (and thus one using Ext spends more
time entering queries). I feel like >50% of my Ext related searches end up
fruitless and I'm stuck banging on it till I can determine how it actually
works (vs. how the docs might make you think it works).

Or maybe I'm dense.

~~~
smrtinsert
It's not just you. Ext has grown into a gui toolkit unlike something like
Smartclient which was born from gui toolkit experience. The Smartclient api
makes WAY more sense in everyway and every method is where you expect it to
be, unlike Ext which makes bizarre infruriating choices and results in you
buying a cookbook in order to be anywhere near productive with it.

I bet you we could fund a kickstarter with angry ex-Ext users.

~~~
canthonytucci
At least form a support group?

It's nice to hear that someone else finds Ext's choices hard to understand at
times, I'm the only guy around here who needs to work with it so it can be
hard to know when it is me and when it is something fishy.

Don't get me started about the almost completely undocumented "Sencha
Architect" which overwrites any changes you make to code in another editor
when you re open a project....

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shaydoc
KnockoutJS for me, its such a nice solution for the presentation view
management. It also has some neat extension libraries, including external
template engine, which loads rendering templates and caches them on demand. I
use Jquery dependent SammyJS for navigation management. I have shell that
manages loading view model/ views based on Sammy's intercepts...pretty happy,
though I hear good things about angularJS, but it came along just a little too
late for me to properly evaluate.

~~~
Maarten88
Second that. The recently updated Visual Studio Tools come with new MVC
templates for single page apps using Durandal, which is based on Knockout and
Sammy. There is also a node.js package and skeleton of Durandal. Durandal adds
the missing parts to knockout and Sammy to make it compete in this field. If
you add the "durandal" search term to the knockout chart line, it climbs above
ember, deservedly.

~~~
shaydoc
I basically wrote a custom "durandal" to plug the missing infrastructure gap,
however I must investigate durandal itself, i am sure it will add a little
more sugar than my effort.

Basically I built a dal access layer based on promises for delegating to from
my viewmodels. I also built a view transition manager into my app shell also,
part of my core SPA framework.

I also added a bespoke option piece for hydrating routes. I have this api for
my SPA called /public/routing and user/{id}/routing which returns the json
config for API's for either anonymous or authenticated users. it is key on the
Sammy Hash intercepts and provides me with the glue, i.e. what external view
template should I transition too, what view Model should I load for this, also
what API and Verbs are supported for the users role! its great, because my
site admin can added routes on the fly, and its totally modular from a dev
point of view, so if a new route can not be found, I just load the Empty View
Template Placeholder (in development environment of course ).

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hmottestad

      Compare to category
    

Makes everything normalised to the searches related to the category "Computers
and Electronics".

~~~
eranation
Interesting when putting in programming languages and checking Compare to
category

[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5-31&q=scala,...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5-31&q=scala,+java,+ruby,+python,+clojure&cmpt=q)

Then go and check by city instead of region

I find it overwhelmingly eye opening

~~~
aespinoza
Very interesting. Clojure seems to be extremely popular.

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laughfactory
Yeeeeaaah, this doesn't really indicate much of anything. All it reflects is
number of searches for a specific term or combination of terms. Why do people
do Google searches? They're looking for something or they're curious about
something. One way to read the results is that Angular is difficult to learn--
thus all the searches (for help, tutorials, documentation, etc.). Plus, if you
add or subtract minor details like "js" or categories you get totally
different results. And Backbone doesn't look remotely right. Relying on these
trend graphs for anything is laughable at best. They're not even that
interesting because they could literally mean anything depending on the
framework. Some frameworks might incite a lot of curiousity but but easy to
learn with great documentation (that reduces the need to Google for relevant
material); Other frameworks might be difficult to use, difficult to learn, and
have poor documentation...and thus require lots of Google usage.

Google Trends graphs without substantial analysis are just noise.

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aespinoza
It is interesting that ExtJs is so much searched for than any other of the
most popular frameworks. Specially since you don't hear much about ExtJs
lately. AngulaJs though is getting close.

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harel
I hear a lot about ExtJs actually. I've been using their framework for complex
Javascript systems for a while now and it keeps getting better and better. I
can see they invest a lot of resources in it. Its not popular with the 'gimme
it for free' crowd though. I agree its not for everyone though its a
commercial project (albeit free with GPL licence for open source projects),
but then again you do get what you pay for here - nothing else that I've seen
so far (and I've seen a lot) even comes close in terms of polish. Another
common extjs deterrent is that its a complete framework with all batteries
included, and requires an investment in a new mindset as far as how to develop
single page browser apps. I found it more similar to Java Swing apps or other
Desktop tool kits than any other JavaScript framework.

~~~
aespinoza
Yes, I agree. I use extjs for our product (iKnode), but lately we have been
moving towards AngularJs.

But I agree, extjs needs a considerable amount of investment in time and
mindshare, because of the way it is built. I actually like it very much. Hey I
built my product based on it.

But lately I have seen extjs as old, and in need of love. AngularJs for
example is easily lovable and easy to learn.

~~~
as_if
I felt that ExtJS4s MVC concept was easier to grasp than Angular. But I had to
replace parts of it with DeftJS to get it to do what I wanted.

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sideproject
JS frameworks are such a funny thing.

I never knew that Ext was as popular as the trend graphs suggest. Then reading
through the comments there seem to be a number of people using them and enjoy
using them (of course there are people on the other side, commenting against
it).

Posts about JS frameworks on HB appear quite frequent and each time there is a
healthy does of people saying that they LOVE it and then another group saying
they don't like it.

Though some tools receives lots of hype, it just goes to show that there is no
one solution here. At the very high level, all the frameworks are trying to
achieve the same thing.

Ask the end-user if they are what frameworks are used - of course they don't!
There's definitely more than one way to skin the cat.

I've tried a number of frameworks purely out of the hype and though learning
them is useful, I think it makes sense to pick the right tool for you and not
worry too much about what other people are doing.

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tete
I wonder how they compare to Meteor and Derby, but they usually aren't called
Derby.js or Meteor.js.

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liberte9
It's exciting to see AngularJS's growth. I think there is a lot of hopefully
merited hype out there for Angular as "the one we have been waiting for".

My company has been transitioning away from Flex, and first we tried ExtJS. It
worked well as a good direct translation from Flex, but none of us were fans
of the heavily generated HTML. It felt to me very much like a plugin, built
for dumping thick-app designs into a web framework. Our designers hated it.

AngularJS seems to give the best of both worlds, freeing designers to write
pure HTML, while allowing developers to work at a level of abstraction away
from the DOM.

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JOnAgain
[fixed]
[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5&q=angular.j...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5&q=angular.js%20%2B%20angularjs%20%2B%20%22angular%20js%22%2C%20ext.js%20%2B%20%20extjs%2B%20%22ext%20js%22%2C%20backbone.js%20%2B%20%20backbonejs%20%2B%20%22backbone%20js%22%2C%20jquery.js%20%2B%20emberjs%20%2B%20%22jquery%22%2C%20knockout.js%20%2B%20knockoutjs%20%2B%20%22knockout%20js%22&cmpt=q)

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kailuowang
A slightly different view - removed 'js', limit to 'programming' category and
in the last 12 month.

Then trend with Angular is quite amazing.
[http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5-31&q=knocko...](http://www.google.com/trends/explore#cat=0-5-31&q=knockout%2C%20angular%2C%20ember%2C%20backbone&date=today%2012-m&cmpt=q)

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sax
Leading sourcesof queries for these frameworks

Embers: USA

Angularjs: India

Extjs: Cuba, china and then India

Knockoutjs: India

Backbonejs: India

My hypothesis is that this graphs shows what people want to learn, perhaps not
what they are using. Although, Cuba just looks out of place.

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delambo
I often search on "backbone" - docs are the first result. Same with "angular"
and "ember".

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pkteison
Any idea why most of the world is completely blank on that map? Is there
really nearly-zero javascript work done in South America, or do they just use
a different search engine?

~~~
zalew
extjs seems to be very popular on Cuba compared to the rest of the world. huh?

if these graphs were about to mean anything or be relevant, it could possibly
that the rest of the world is not that keen on instantly jumping into the next
hot technology of the day. usually it takes time until the silicon valley
hotness gets abroad. not judging, just sayin'.

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jakub_g
Side note: Try "javascript" vs "jquery". It seems they're equal now and soon
probably the latter will be searched more.

~~~
Narretz
Hopefully not. Knowing jQuery is no substitute for knowing Javascript, and you
can see this problem with many developers who ask "How can I do x in jQuery"
when all they need is JS. Bigger frameworks may hinder this development,
because to use them, you need a better grasp of JS than for jquery. But I am
already seeing "how can I do x in angular", so this may just be wishful
thinking.

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crucialfelix
of course this could be an indicator of non-obvious documentation that forces
you to constantly google "angularjs how in hell's name do I ..."

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jensenbox
Why was jQuery left out?

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johnnymonster
remove one of the terms and throw in jquery.js + jquery it pretty much
squashes every other search term

