Preface

I love Backbone.js. It's an amazing little library that does so much with so little. It's also unopinionated—there are endless ways to do the same thing. This last point gives many Backbone.js programmers a headache. The freedom to implement things the way we see fit is great, until we start making those unavoidable consistency errors.

When I first started with Flux, I couldn't really see how such an architecture could help out a mere Backbone.js programmer. Eventually, I figured out two things. First, Flux is unopinionated where it matters—the implementation specifics. Two, Flux is very much like Backbone in the spirit of minimal moving parts that do one thing well.

As I started experimenting with Flux, I realized that Flux provides the missing architectural perspective that enables scalability. Where Backbone.js and other related technologies fall apart is when something goes wrong. In fact, these bugs can be so difficult that they're never actually fixed—the whole system is scarred with workarounds.

I decided to write this book in the hope that other programmers, from all walks of JavaScript, can experience the same level of enlightenment as I have working with this wonderful technology from Facebook.