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Getting started with Meteor.js

75 points by stared 12y ago

joshowens 12y ago
Thanks for sharing this with HN :)
- stared 12y ago
  My pleasure. I like this meta-introducation approach - i.e. when there is abundance of introductions its worth make an introduction to introductions. As a side note, one of things that made me using Meteor.js is the easiness of starting (largely to great official examples and tutorials). BTW: I highly recommend Discover Meteor by Sacha Greif & Tom Coleman (https://www.discovermeteor.com/ https://www.discovermeteor.com/). One of the best tutorial books I went through.
  - puranjay 12y ago
    Question as an aspiring web developer with a moderate-high degree of comfort in Javascript, and low-moderate comfort in Ruby: would you recommend giving 100% to mastering Rails, or dabbling with Meteor from time to time? The aim is to not get a job as a developer, but build my own projects. Apologies if this kind of question is better suited for Stackoverflow
    - stared 12y ago
      For side small side projects, where you want start and move quickly - I totally recommend Meteor. Before knowing _any_ framework I started reading on Meteor - and literally in hours, I had a simple app. (Actually, it's how I use it. I am mainly data scientist; I do some webdev, but its not my main thing.)
- stared 12y ago
  @joshowens, one more comment - the compilation is excellent, but for packages I think that (especially for a newcomer) it would be better to add a one sentence desc per package (especially as one do not need to start with learning all of them!) rather than providing 3 links (if one wish, one can easily jump from Atmosphere to GitHub).
evo_9 12y ago
Meteor is by far my favorite new platform for side projects. I love how easy it is to get something up and running, the integrated build system and the simplicity of deploying your projects to a meteor host. I wish there was an easy way to use a different database although I get it, it's part of what makes Meteor so easy get something up and running quickly. My gut is that if Meteor weren't solely tied to MongoDB and instead had an easy way to switch to Firebase, Parse, etc this platform would really take off.
- primigenus 12y ago
  You aren't tied to MongoDB. You can switch to Firebase (https://atmospherejs.com/mrt/firebase https://atmospherejs.com/mrt/firebase) or Parse or even REST APIs if you want. Someone is even writing a reactive MySQL driver (https://github.com/numtel/meteor-mysql https://github.com/numtel/meteor-mysql).
  - uptownJimmy 12y ago
    1. The fact that one must hack together Meteor with anyting other than MongoDB effectively makes it "tied to MongoDB". Most people who want to engage in this level of hackery in their spare time would, I think, just ignore Meteor and dive straight into some version of the MEAN stack. 2. Because that's the whole point of Meteor: that it doesn't require the same level of server-side savviness and hackery that server-side JavaScript usually requires. Meteor is trying to be something like Rails, where the barriers to entry are not quite so prohibitive for quite so many aspiring developers. 3. Meteor must have official support for one (or more) of the SQL db's in order to take off. That's not all it needs, but it's a big one. I'm interested in seeing how SQL support is implemented, and I assume we're talking some sort of ORM, but we'll see.
    - polysaturate 12y ago
      Completely agreed. Without real proper officially supported SQL db connectors, I don't think meteor will really take off. I say this as someone who has used it and like a lot of the features. I just can't see myself taking something to production on mongoDB. Also, now that the meteorJS codebase is stabilizing, I think it may be time for some conventions to mature around it. Right now, it's essentially the wild west of JS.
dadair 12y ago
I've been using Meteor for sideprojects to learn Javascript. While I like the ecosystem and meteor itself, I have found it hard (as someone new to Javascript itself) to learn "best practices" while using Meteor. I've tried several times to use different testing frameworks, but I end up getting frustrated with not knowing what I need to mock, how I should package things, etc.
- amirouche 12y ago
  meteor as a lot of "specifics" that what I don't like about it.
jxm262 12y ago
Thanks for this. I'm brand new to Meteor and have been looking for resources. Does anyone have an idea of when the official Windows installation will be released? I've been struggling with trying to get this working correctly on my windows pc and signed up for their email list when it comes out. Hopefully soon?
- pmalynin 12y ago
  For any kind of serverside development I recommend you get a Linux VM. I too prefer to develop on windows but one must understand that in this day and age no one will take you seriously of you host on Windows.
  - grigio 12y ago
    You can also try meteor inside Docker https://github.com/grigio/docker-meteor https://github.com/grigio/docker-meteor
  - pc86 12y ago
    > one must understand that in this day and age no one will take you seriously of you host on Windows. Must I? We clearly don't talk to the same people, then. Not only have I never judged someone or something based on what web host they use (seriously?), I've never heard anyone say or intimate that they would, either.
    - evo_9 12y ago
      Totally agree. Reminds me of my favorite Mac Joke though I think it could apply to Linux folks too so feel free to swop it out. ;) "How can you tell a Mac user? Answer: They tell you" A network support guy laid that on me a few years back, I thought it was hilarious because it's so true. I have since stopped mentioning I'm a mac user...
    - jxm262 12y ago
      > I've never heard anyone say or intimate that they would, either. I'm completely in agreement with you. Unfortunately I've been to a handful of tech meetups where I've heard this exact phrase. It's like they look down on me for using windows :( I dunno, maybe it's my limited perspective but I've actually been feeling like I'm not taken as seriously when I show up to tech meetups with my thinkpad.
jfaucett 12y ago
On first glance I thought this was a joke: "Required Javascript - JS first?! Yes soldier, don't question me again or I will karate chop you! Shell (Terminal) HTML & CSS JSON MongoDB Handlebars Git & GitHub jQuery LESS and/or SASS Underscore and/or Lo-Dash Bootstrap NodeJS Cordova ElasticSearch Ionic - Meteor Package Meteoric " Then immediately following, "Now that you know the above you are deemed worthy to tap into the power and awesomeness of Meteor!" Meteor's probably a good framework (I wouldn't know one way or the other since I haven't tried it), but from that summary it doesn't seem like an easy sell to someone looking for a framework to use.
- evo_9 12y ago
  The author was trying to point out how many different pieces you'd have to hack together to get to the equivalent of what Meteor gives you out of the box. So no, you don't need to install all that other stuff to use Meteor if that's what you took the author to mean.
- bigpeopleareold 12y ago
  GitHub as a requirement? So, I can't write a Meteor app without GitHub? :(
dfischer 12y ago
Meteor is cool but component based architecture is even better and Meteor doesn't really lend it's hand to that. It's a lot of dom action binding/coupling.

75 points by stared 12y ago

joshowens 12y ago

Thanks for sharing this with HN :)

stared 12y ago
My pleasure. I like this meta-introducation approach - i.e. when there is abundance of introductions its worth make an introduction to introductions. As a side note, one of things that made me using Meteor.js is the easiness of starting (largely to great official examples and tutorials). BTW: I highly recommend Discover Meteor by Sacha Greif & Tom Coleman (https://www.discovermeteor.com/ https://www.discovermeteor.com/). One of the best tutorial books I went through.
- puranjay 12y ago
  Question as an aspiring web developer with a moderate-high degree of comfort in Javascript, and low-moderate comfort in Ruby: would you recommend giving 100% to mastering Rails, or dabbling with Meteor from time to time? The aim is to not get a job as a developer, but build my own projects. Apologies if this kind of question is better suited for Stackoverflow
  - stared 12y ago
    For side small side projects, where you want start and move quickly - I totally recommend Meteor. Before knowing _any_ framework I started reading on Meteor - and literally in hours, I had a simple app. (Actually, it's how I use it. I am mainly data scientist; I do some webdev, but its not my main thing.)
stared 12y ago
@joshowens, one more comment - the compilation is excellent, but for packages I think that (especially for a newcomer) it would be better to add a one sentence desc per package (especially as one do not need to start with learning all of them!) rather than providing 3 links (if one wish, one can easily jump from Atmosphere to GitHub).

evo_9 12y ago

Meteor is by far my favorite new platform for side projects. I love how easy it is to get something up and running, the integrated build system and the simplicity of deploying your projects to a meteor host. I wish there was an easy way to use a different database although I get it, it's part of what makes Meteor so easy get something up and running quickly. My gut is that if Meteor weren't solely tied to MongoDB and instead had an easy way to switch to Firebase, Parse, etc this platform would really take off.

primigenus 12y ago
You aren't tied to MongoDB. You can switch to Firebase (https://atmospherejs.com/mrt/firebase https://atmospherejs.com/mrt/firebase) or Parse or even REST APIs if you want. Someone is even writing a reactive MySQL driver (https://github.com/numtel/meteor-mysql https://github.com/numtel/meteor-mysql).
- uptownJimmy 12y ago
  1. The fact that one must hack together Meteor with anyting other than MongoDB effectively makes it "tied to MongoDB". Most people who want to engage in this level of hackery in their spare time would, I think, just ignore Meteor and dive straight into some version of the MEAN stack. 2. Because that's the whole point of Meteor: that it doesn't require the same level of server-side savviness and hackery that server-side JavaScript usually requires. Meteor is trying to be something like Rails, where the barriers to entry are not quite so prohibitive for quite so many aspiring developers. 3. Meteor must have official support for one (or more) of the SQL db's in order to take off. That's not all it needs, but it's a big one. I'm interested in seeing how SQL support is implemented, and I assume we're talking some sort of ORM, but we'll see.
  - polysaturate 12y ago
    Completely agreed. Without real proper officially supported SQL db connectors, I don't think meteor will really take off. I say this as someone who has used it and like a lot of the features. I just can't see myself taking something to production on mongoDB. Also, now that the meteorJS codebase is stabilizing, I think it may be time for some conventions to mature around it. Right now, it's essentially the wild west of JS.

dadair 12y ago

I've been using Meteor for sideprojects to learn Javascript. While I like the ecosystem and meteor itself, I have found it hard (as someone new to Javascript itself) to learn "best practices" while using Meteor. I've tried several times to use different testing frameworks, but I end up getting frustrated with not knowing what I need to mock, how I should package things, etc.

amirouche 12y ago
meteor as a lot of "specifics" that what I don't like about it.

jxm262 12y ago

Thanks for this. I'm brand new to Meteor and have been looking for resources. Does anyone have an idea of when the official Windows installation will be released? I've been struggling with trying to get this working correctly on my windows pc and signed up for their email list when it comes out. Hopefully soon?

pmalynin 12y ago
For any kind of serverside development I recommend you get a Linux VM. I too prefer to develop on windows but one must understand that in this day and age no one will take you seriously of you host on Windows.
- grigio 12y ago
  You can also try meteor inside Docker https://github.com/grigio/docker-meteor https://github.com/grigio/docker-meteor
- pc86 12y ago
  > one must understand that in this day and age no one will take you seriously of you host on Windows. Must I? We clearly don't talk to the same people, then. Not only have I never judged someone or something based on what web host they use (seriously?), I've never heard anyone say or intimate that they would, either.
  - evo_9 12y ago
    Totally agree. Reminds me of my favorite Mac Joke though I think it could apply to Linux folks too so feel free to swop it out. ;) "How can you tell a Mac user? Answer: They tell you" A network support guy laid that on me a few years back, I thought it was hilarious because it's so true. I have since stopped mentioning I'm a mac user...
  - jxm262 12y ago
    > I've never heard anyone say or intimate that they would, either. I'm completely in agreement with you. Unfortunately I've been to a handful of tech meetups where I've heard this exact phrase. It's like they look down on me for using windows :( I dunno, maybe it's my limited perspective but I've actually been feeling like I'm not taken as seriously when I show up to tech meetups with my thinkpad.

jfaucett 12y ago

On first glance I thought this was a joke: "Required Javascript - JS first?! Yes soldier, don't question me again or I will karate chop you! Shell (Terminal) HTML & CSS JSON MongoDB Handlebars Git & GitHub jQuery LESS and/or SASS Underscore and/or Lo-Dash Bootstrap NodeJS Cordova ElasticSearch Ionic - Meteor Package Meteoric " Then immediately following, "Now that you know the above you are deemed worthy to tap into the power and awesomeness of Meteor!" Meteor's probably a good framework (I wouldn't know one way or the other since I haven't tried it), but from that summary it doesn't seem like an easy sell to someone looking for a framework to use.

evo_9 12y ago
The author was trying to point out how many different pieces you'd have to hack together to get to the equivalent of what Meteor gives you out of the box. So no, you don't need to install all that other stuff to use Meteor if that's what you took the author to mean.
bigpeopleareold 12y ago
GitHub as a requirement? So, I can't write a Meteor app without GitHub? :(

dfischer 12y ago

Meteor is cool but component based architecture is even better and Meteor doesn't really lend it's hand to that. It's a lot of dom action binding/coupling.