Actually, in the tutorial, I go through how you can use Underscore templates, which are stored as .jst files alongside your regular ERb templates. (no hardcoded

Actually, in the tutorial, I go through how you can use Underscore templates, which are stored as .jst files alongside your regular ERb templates. (no hardcoded strings) I can tell you know that after using Backbone for a largish javascript project, it really eases the pain that comes with syncing data to and from the server, and handling all the random bits of javascript that usually pile up in a Rails application. Basically, it gives you a logical place for everything. Of course, if you're app isn't javascript intensive, there's no reason to use it.