title: Handlebars JS Precompiled Faster Than Just Rendering On The Server?
body: <p>I apologize in advance for the total noob question about Handlebars. I'm coming from a Rails background and while Handlebars looks cool I'm having trouble seeing it's advantage over compiling views on the server.</p>
  
  <p>So here are the questions.</p>
  
  <p>Currently, our apps compile Handlebars JS templates on our node server, and pass fully rendered pages  back to the client. I've been asked to look into precompiling the templates for render on the client.</p>
  
  <p>First, I'm a bit perplexed by how to architect this. Would the initial download to the client just be like a layout template (just boilerplate html, css, and js), then the client would use whatever json data gets passed to it, along with the precompiled templates sitting in Handlebars.templates to build out the details of the views?</p>
  
  <p>If so, is it really more efficient to load up the client with every possible template it may need, rather then just serve up only what it needs at the time it needs it?</p>