Given the convergence of DurandalJS & AngularJS which should be chosen for a new project?

Question

The owner of the DurandalJS project is now working at Google on AngularJS Next (v2?) in addition to keeping the current version of DurandalJS maintained. The two frameworks are converging.

http://blog.angularjs.org/2014/04/angular-and-durandal-converge.html

For a new mini-SPA project, which framework would be the best choice specifically with regard to the upgrade path?

I note that Rob Eisenberg has listed a number of tips to help existing DurandalJS users get ready for the next version, so it appears there will be an upgrade path available, but I'm wondering if the upgrade from AngularJS to the next generation framework would be simpler.

http://eisenbergeffect.bluespire.com/preparing-for-durandal-nextgen/

To be clear - I'm more concerned in making the right choice for the future (large SPA, split into multiple mini-SPAs) than for my current needs.

Answer 1

I'm not sure which one would be the best choice for now ... actually I'd say none of them is future save enough. Angular 2.0 is going to be definitely different from 1.0 and of course also from Durandal.

Nevertheless the framework itself maybe not that important. I think you should focus on separating code in reusable components. Whether it is a Angular Service/Factory/Provider or a clean Require Module in Durandal it actually doesn't matter. Getting it into the "NEW" Framework should be just a matter of adding the proper wrappers. As for 2-way-binding use the oberserver plugin to maintain clean POJOs.

The most important change from my perspective in NG2 will be the support of Lifecycle events, so even using those in Durandal now will be somehow supported in NG2. As for composition there for sure will be a way to simulate that easily in NG2 as well.

For current work the only two things important for the decision of the currently used Framework in my opinion are the use of RequireJS and Framework simplicity. Sure you can add it to Angular as well, there are several guides on that, but Durandal was built from ground up with RequireJS in mind. Especially in bigger projects this can save you a lot of headache from missing or wrong dependencies. As of the second argument -> porting Durandal to Angular is not that of a big deal because it's written in an easy and understandable way. Vice-versa may be a totally different story. Getting your custom Directives implemented as a combination of templating and ko-bindings can get pretty hard :)

So as a closing statement, if it's going to be a small project, but with the need for continuous support as well as update to NG2 in future, I'd go with Durandal. Besides RequireJS everything is exchangeable and adaptable. In the case of Angular I'm not sure how drastically the new DI system will change the way of development so that would be a show-stopper for me.

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Btw. here is the design-document for NG2. So as you see there kinda everything that is important is gonna change:

• Router
• Persistance
• Directives
• Modularization (maybe we finally see RequireJS :) )