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After building some single page JS web apps small and large, I am not sure that building large JS web apps is actually a good idea. In fact, a lot of the time

After building some single page JS web apps small and large, I am not sure that building large JS web apps is actually a good idea. In fact, a lot of the time they probably aren't a good idea. It is often better to just build out separate pages and on a page that requires more interactivity, use knockout or something similar.

mjallday 13y ago
What are the issues that you've run into? We've used Ember.js to build a reasonably complex app (github.com/balanced/balanced-dashboard) and while there have been some tricky bits it's generally been what we expected it to be. Ember.js does a great job of helping you when you start to get a lot of moving parts. I felt the same way you did before I dived in but now I'm comfortable in saying that its possible to build large apps in JavaScript.
ulisesrmzroche 13y ago
I think the exact opposite actually. JS Web Apps are great. What problems did you run into that made you think otherwise?
- steveklabnik 13y ago
  I personally run into a host of issues, mostly relating to browser behavior that no longer works. For example, 'text areas' that no longer trigger the browser's built-in spell checking. Or scrolling that works differently. Or keyboard shortcuts that are overridden. Or, a simple 'submit' button that no longer works because of a browser JS bug, whereas if it were just HTML it'd work. I do like a lot of browser based apps too, but many of them have tons of annoying issues. (Note: I mean JS SPAs in general, not Ember ones. Most Ember apps I know are pretty well behaved.)
marknutter 13y ago
It really depends on the type of app you're building. If you're Twitter, a single-page app probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, which I'm sure is why they backpedaled from that strategy. If you're Asana, then a single-page app makes a lot of sense. It has to do with just how many dynamic things you want happening on the page.

mjallday 13y ago

What are the issues that you've run into? We've used Ember.js to build a reasonably complex app (github.com/balanced/balanced-dashboard) and while there have been some tricky bits it's generally been what we expected it to be. Ember.js does a great job of helping you when you start to get a lot of moving parts. I felt the same way you did before I dived in but now I'm comfortable in saying that its possible to build large apps in JavaScript.

ulisesrmzroche 13y ago

I think the exact opposite actually. JS Web Apps are great. What problems did you run into that made you think otherwise?

steveklabnik 13y ago
I personally run into a host of issues, mostly relating to browser behavior that no longer works. For example, 'text areas' that no longer trigger the browser's built-in spell checking. Or scrolling that works differently. Or keyboard shortcuts that are overridden. Or, a simple 'submit' button that no longer works because of a browser JS bug, whereas if it were just HTML it'd work. I do like a lot of browser based apps too, but many of them have tons of annoying issues. (Note: I mean JS SPAs in general, not Ember ones. Most Ember apps I know are pretty well behaved.)

marknutter 13y ago

It really depends on the type of app you're building. If you're Twitter, a single-page app probably doesn't make a whole lot of sense, which I'm sure is why they backpedaled from that strategy. If you're Asana, then a single-page app makes a lot of sense. It has to do with just how many dynamic things you want happening on the page.