The post is a little dense, I'll try to summarize: it's basically Backbone split into NPM modules so you can pick & choose. For instance, you want Backbone's collections, but don't want the whole Backbone library, so you `npm install ampersand-collection`. They've setup a registry of recommended modules [1] and you compile with browserify.
Good for folks that are used to the node modules philosophy - Seems like a logical extension of the browserify effort (bringing Backbone into the frontend modules system). I dig it.
That's true, although many of the core backbone components have been significantly modified/basically completely rewritten, keeping a fair amount of similarity with the backbone APIs but extending them too, for example:
* Views have declarative data bindings for updating your html with model data automatically; out of the box, sensible render and remove methods just work; collection rendering is easy.
* Models have explicitly declared properties and types, as well as evented + cached derived/computed properties. You can access model properties without .get('name') and .set('name', value) and events and things just work.
> You can access model properties without .get('name') and .set('name', value) and events and things just work.
[when IE >= 9]
Honestly though I'm excited by getters and setters. I always disliked calling them explicitly in Backbone—it feels like a hack.
On the other hand, there's something nice to be said about explicit setters (you might not expect events to fire when it doesn't look like a function call).
Still, I'd rather have real looking code than a bunch of xxx.set('propA', yyy.get('propB')) nonsense.
Good for folks that are used to the node modules philosophy - Seems like a logical extension of the browserify effort (bringing Backbone into the frontend modules system). I dig it.
1. http://tools.ampersandjs.com/