Webapps for Data Scientists - Building your first CRUD

EzGraphs · on Jan 15, 2013

Google’s AngularJS framework is in view in the post - and it really is useful to folks like Data Scientists (as opposed to GUI engineers/front-end developers). Automatic data binding and a set of directives (that look like HTML elements and attributes when invoked) make the language feel like HTML the way it should be in a world of responsive GUIs and Ajax. For Data Scientists (and others who don't have the time / interest to delve deeply into the latest JavaScript libraries and development practices) it is great to have a sort of and HTML-like-Domain-Specific-Language-Extension that is fully functional and maturing quickly.

AngularJS is not new to the mainstream JavaScript community - but it is to many others who can derive a lot of benefit from it. Good see to a tutorial to get such folks up and running quickly with it.

BTW - if you prefer text to video, here is a related post from the authors blog:

http://jphoward.wordpress.com/2013/01/04/end-to-end-web-app-...

jph00 · on Jan 15, 2013

Thanks for the interest in my tutorial! I only started with AngularJS a month ago while I was on vacation. I tried a few of the newer JS MVC frameworks, but had no idea how special Angular is until I got in to it. Its ability to add features to HTML (using directives) is unique AFAICT.

I think the one thing holding it back has been the lack of a basic tutorial. I really found it quite hard to wrap my head around the concepts for this reason. There will be a book coming out later this year I believe; in the meantime hopefully this ongoing tutorial series will help get folks started.

I'll be posting part 3 of the video tomorrow. Let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.

mathewsanders · on Jan 15, 2013

I've been using angular for around the same time-period as you.

As a designer, the initial data-binding and directives felt like I was performing magic, although there was a steep-ish learning curve as soon as I left trivial examples.

I feel like there is a lot of momentum building behind Angular, and is a great model to start thinking about now for when browsers support web components (https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/webcomponents/raw-file/tip/explainer/...) (what will that be HTML6?)

For someone coming to Angular fresh (with only some basic jQuery knowledge) I also found it easier to learn/work in coffeescript.