Ember.js 2020 Crash Course: Part 2
This series is based on the Ember.js 2020 Crash Course tech talk which I gave at the coloradoSprings.js Meetup.
Here’s where we are so far:
- Part 1: Intro and Overview
- Part 2: History and Current Context (this post)
- Part 3: Getting Started
- Part4: Templates
- Part 5: Routing
- Part 6: Testing
- Part 7: Components
In Part 1 of this series, we introduced and overviewed Ember.js.
Now it’s time to take a look at how Ember got started. We’ll also look at where Ember is today and how it ranks against other Front End frameworks.
In the Beginning
To put Ember.js in its historical context, it’s helpful to see a timeline overview of Front End tech as a whole.
- ~ 1990–2000: HTML, CSS, JavaScript invented; Browser wars begin
- ~ 2000–2010: jQuery is born; CSS frameworks begin to appear
- ~ 2010–2020: JavaScript frameworks are born; HTML5 is launched
Ember was born on the early end of the Front End framework boom: AngularJS (2010), Ember.js (2011), React (2013), Vue.js (2013), Angular v2 (2016).
Ember.js was founded by Yehuda Katz and Tom Dale in December of 2011. Both Katz and Dale came out of the Ruby on Rails community. This has heavily influenced the core philosophy of Ember. In fact, Ember is sometimes referred to as “the Rails of the Front End”.
Aspects of Rails that Katz and Dale brought with them:
- Strong community orientation
- “Batteries included” approach
- Highly opinionated about the right way to do things
In the last decade, Ember has gone through three major versions (1.x, 2.x, and 3.x). In late 2019 Ember also released their first Edition called Ember Octane.
At a high level, Ember Octane:
- Removed dependency on jQuery
- Increased focus on components
- Shifted towards an HTML-first approach
- Overhauled dev tooling and documentation
Ember Today
In the Front End framework wars, React is still king in 2020. In terms of total usage, Vue and Angular trail in 2nd and 3rd place.
Ember comes in a distant 4th in total usage, but it is still employed by big-name companies such as LinkedIn, Netflix, Square, Microsoft, Heroku, and Twitch.
Instead of trying to take over one of the Big Three Front End frameworks, Ember seems to focus more on their current community of developers.
Ember’s focus on community shows up in many places from glowing reviews of the annual EmberConf to the community-driven RFC process.
In a nutshell, Ember is (relatively) small but mighty. It trails React, Vue, and Angular in total usage, but Ember continues to be the chosen tool of hundreds of companies.
Up Next: I’ll be posting Part 3 next week. We’ll take a look at Getting Started in Ember.js.
Stay tuned!
