There has been a lot of discussion lately about JavaScript frameworks with heated arguments, especially Backbone vs Ember. Backbone seems to have more traction, though, Github effect…
Both frameworks look pretty nice. I think it still boils down to “choose right tool for the job”, I could imagine using both (not in same project though).
A quick checklist:
1) Do you have tons of views all of them more or less similar or “component based”, or are you customizing every single view type like we do in our avoimet työpaikat helsinki job search service? Big “we do all kinds of things for you” frameworks like Ember are very nice generating data bindings, I’d use it without second thought in some enterprise systems I’ve done but would not use it Avointyopaikka.
2) How much you need to customize things? The more you need to customize the more frameworks get on the way. For example, that URL format we’re using in Avointyopaikka requires fully customized routing. It’s easy to do from scratch, but if I’d using some framework I typically would have to spend much more time learning how that kind of core functionality can be customized if it even can.
3) Do you care more about rapidly adding new views, reports and data bindings than usability? Again in some enterprise systems, having the data “somehow” usable is more important than usability, so again I’d go for Ember or any other tool that can do those bindings easily. On Backbone you’re more on your own.
4) How much 3rd party integration you need to do? If you have lots of 3rd party components to integrate I’d be hesitant with frameworks. They tend to be more “my way or highway” solutions so integrating some external component might be really painful.