8 ms·

Technology Radar May 2013

63 points by ABS 13y ago

swah 13y ago
Go is not on their radar yet!
- alipang 13y ago
  but that would conflict with their own continuous integration system... http://www.thoughtworks-studios.com/go-continuous-delivery http://www.thoughtworks-studios.com/go-continuous-delivery
dadro 13y ago
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 13y ago
  If you dig back to the last tech radar (http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-october-2012.pdf http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-oc...) you'll find the narrative for why Backbone.js was moved to the 'hold' category.
  - sidupadhyay 13y ago
    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 13y ago
      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.
mark_l_watson 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
lifeisstillgood 13y ago
PostgreSQL for NoSQL Hell yes, trialling here soon!
davidw 13y ago
Adopt MongoDB? I thought people were starting to realize that it's not so "web scale" after all.
- jabbernotty 13y ago
  What people are now realizing is that MongoDB is not a one-size-fits-all technology.
  - mgm 13y ago
    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.
lifeisstillgood 13y ago
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?
- arethuza 13y ago
  Another example, in this context, what are "Big enterprise solutions"?
- xaritas 13y ago
  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 http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DDD_Aggregate.html and http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AggregateOrientedDatabase.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AggregateOrientedDatabase.html
josh2600 13y ago
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".

63 points by ABS 13y ago

swah 13y ago

Go is not on their radar yet!

alipang 13y ago
but that would conflict with their own continuous integration system... http://www.thoughtworks-studios.com/go-continuous-delivery http://www.thoughtworks-studios.com/go-continuous-delivery

dadro 13y ago

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 13y ago
If you dig back to the last tech radar (http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-october-2012.pdf http://thoughtworks.fileburst.com/assets/technology-radar-oc...) you'll find the narrative for why Backbone.js was moved to the 'hold' category.
- sidupadhyay 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.

mark_l_watson 13y ago

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 13y ago
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.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

PostgreSQL for NoSQL Hell yes, trialling here soon!

davidw 13y ago

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

jabbernotty 13y ago
What people are now realizing is that MongoDB is not a one-size-fits-all technology.
- mgm 13y ago
  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.

lifeisstillgood 13y ago

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?

arethuza 13y ago
Another example, in this context, what are "Big enterprise solutions"?
xaritas 13y ago
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 http://martinfowler.com/bliki/DDD_Aggregate.html and http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AggregateOrientedDatabase.html http://martinfowler.com/bliki/AggregateOrientedDatabase.html

josh2600 13y ago

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".