Alex Gomes has a great series running on alternate technologies that are competing for the mindshare of JavaScript web-app development. You know, as functionality shifts from server to browser. Here’s his latest. He has added Backbone to a series that already has ExtJS and JavaScriptMVC in it.

What is new is that you can compare branches for each implementation, as he has each implementation as a branch within the same repo now. This will help visualize the differences between competing frameworks. I think it is a race, and some consolidation is due.

Here’s the comparison between the Backbone implementation and the JavaScriptMVC one.

Alex’s implementation-per-branch organization is better than the way that Addy Osmani’s todomvc.com single branch design in my opinion. Sure it requires a higher level of SCM adeptness, and Git/Github in particular, but people who have skin in the game are much more likely to look at the diff, feel somewhat insulted at the implementation, and donate back a patch. Of course we don’t have patches any more, we have GitHub pull-requests.

Anyway, Alex will get round to AngularJS (then Knockout) sooner or later, and we’ll hopefully see JavaScript disappear, and magic arrive.

Github have a page/tutorial on comparison view here.