Can we please stop with the framework approach? Node.js has what is probably the best package management system out there. Frameworks are really only necessary when you have crappy package management or specific problems. NPM makes is so easy to use libraries liberally and that's what people should be doing.<p>With frameworks, the framework calls your code.
With libraries, your code calls the libraries.<p>If you've never taken the libraries approach and are working with a framework, then you are essentially holding a hammer and looking at all problems as nails.<p>What I'd prefer to hear about is a discussion of Racer, the synchronization library used in Derby.
A few months back I decided to give some time to both Derby and Meteor. Derby appealed because of the packaging, but Meteor obviously had the media traction. I gave 10 days to each to see what I would learn and build.<p>After the 20 days my biggest problem was with Derby and trying to make progress as the community and support just wasn't there. Of course you might think that one shouldn't complain about this, but its important for the uptake to have clear documentation (it starts well), guides and people involved etc. I think it was Nate that would answer my stupid questions on IRC when he had time, but other than that I was on my own and the feeling I got from others was the same...<p>Normally I would just read the source, but it was in coffeescript ( glad that Derby has now moved to plain Javascript), and it just wasn't enjoyable when I wanted to integrate with my own datasource from a custom JSON backend - not just another NoSQL database, but an API I know well. I got it working and so forth but it did make me wonder why the hell I bothered and rm'd the git repo.<p>Doing the same exercise using Meteor the first thing that struck me at the time was their community. The second thing was I was having fun again, and thirdly it was less effort as long as I didn't leave the path too much. But the fact that it didn't have auth and that my datasource was completely exposed and that I couldn't use existing packages was a downside. So I put both to bed.<p>I hope Derby is getting greater traction and a community is starting to form around it. I also hope that the move to Javascript will make some of the design decisions clearer.<p>In a few months I will probably give one or other a proper project to work on.
Haven't looked at Derby, but after doing my first node steps with Meteor; I quickly figured it was a very rigid platform.<p>What? no npm?<p>So I recently switch to SocketStream. So far so good. I like to be in full control and assemble together the bricks I need.
As far as I can tell derby has zero story for datastores outside their json racer implementation. There's too much focus on realtime sync in all these frameworks. Even a realtime app like twitter needs complicated relational data. I want a framework that could build github. Derby does get major points for solving the seo and page load issue though.
I like Derby over Meteor, without question. But Derby is still sorely lacking in server-side logic, particularly auth, which is what drove my Derby project to a halt. What non-trivial apps can one build without any private or authenticated data whatsoever?<p>Supposedly these features are coming, and I sincerely hope that derby matures into a real-world tool. The RacerJS tech is amazing, and the library is fun to work with.
I met with Nate and Brian a while back, both these guys are extremely intelligent hackers with great business sense.<p>They're currently building a core product that actually has a business model with the derby framework which will help it progress along very well.<p>While they may not have raised 11.2M these guys aren't going anywhere.<p>In spending just an hour or two with them their talents really shined through. As a supporter of rails I will certainly be staying on top of changes to both Derby and Meteor and looking forward to what comes next for both.<p>The reality is the creation of frameworks like these is nothing but a good thing for the hacker community at large.<p>Congrats on the press guys, Keep up the good work!
This is a pretty pedestrian non-technical article about javascript frameworks that have essentially zero market share. Don't get me wrong, they're both totally awesome and anyone interested should check them out. But the article itself is pretty worthless.
My biggest gripe with Meteor is their effort in creating a new package manager. We already have NPM and it works well. I feel that for Meteor to truly be embraced by the Node.js community they'll need to embrace NPM.
Direct link to the library:
<a href="http://derbyjs.com/" rel="nofollow">http://derbyjs.com/</a><p>Ironic that i come to know about this framework via Techcrunch.
This is not the right place for it. I have now understood Meteor has funding of $11million dollars.<p>What exactly are they funding in? Please explain, im a developer who clearly fails to understand business.<p>Edit:
Please feel free to email if you would rather keep this thread clean from this detour.