patching Model and Collection directly

backbone.viewcollection.js

@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+(function(Backbone) {
+
+  // The original Backbone.Collection that we're extending
+  var proto = Backbone.Collection.prototype;
+
+  Backbone.ViewCollection = Backbone.Collection.extend({
+    // TODO: ViewCollection methods
+  });
+
+  // Add tracking to Backbone.Collection
+  function extendCollection(name) {
+    Backbone.ViewCollection.prototype[name] = function() {
+      // Trigger an update on any write operation...
+      Backbone.Virtual.track(this, 'add remove reset change create sort');
+      return proto[name].apply(this, arguments);
+    };
+  }
+  // ...if a Virtual function performs a Collection read operation:
+  _.each(['get', 'getByCid', 'where', 'pluck', 'clone', 'at', 'toJSON'], extendCollection);
+
+  // Alias back to Collection
+  Backbone.Collection.prototype = Backbone.ViewCollection.prototype;
+
+})(Backbone);

backbone.viewmodel.js

@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 (function(Backbone) {
 
+  var proto = Backbone.Model.prototype;
+
   Backbone.ViewModel = Backbone.Model.extend({
 
     initialize: function(attributes, options) {
@@ -19,7 +21,7 @@
           return virtual.set.call(this, key, value, options, virtual);
         }
       }
-      return Backbone.Model.prototype.set.apply(this, arguments);
+      return proto.set.apply(this, arguments);
     },
 
     bindView: function(attribute, container) {
@@ -156,4 +158,7 @@
 
   });
 
+  Backbone.Model.prototype = Backbone.ViewModel.prototype;
+
+
 })(Backbone);

backbone.virtual.js

@@ -1,24 +1,5 @@
 (function(Backbone) {
 
-  // Add tracking to Backbone.Model
-  Backbone.Model.prototype.get = function(attr) {
-    Backbone.Virtual.track(this, 'change:' + attr);
-    return this.attributes[attr];
-  };
-
-  // Add tracking to Backbone.Collection
-  function extendCollection(name) {
-    Backbone.Collection.prototype['_' + name] = Backbone.Collection.prototype[name];
-    Backbone.Collection.prototype[name] = function() {
-      // Trigger an update on any write operation...
-      Backbone.Virtual.track(this, 'add remove reset change create sort');
-      return this['_' + name].apply(this, arguments);
-    };
-  }
-  // ...if a Virtual function performs a Collection read operation:
-  _.each(['get', 'getByCid', 'where', 'pluck', 'clone', 'at', 'toJSON'], extendCollection);
-
-
   // Options = model, attr, get, set, fail
   Backbone.Virtual = function(options) {
     _.extend(this, options);

test/each.qunit.js

@@ -6,10 +6,10 @@ $(document).ready(function() {
 
     var vm = new Backbone.ViewModel({
       listItems: new Backbone.Collection([
-        new Backbone.ViewModel({ label: 'a' }),
-        new Backbone.ViewModel({ label: 'b' }),
-        new Backbone.ViewModel({ label: 'c' }),
-        new Backbone.ViewModel({ label: 'd' })
+        { label: 'a' },
+        { label: 'b' },
+        { label: 'c' },
+        { label: 'd' }
       ])
     });
 

test/test.html

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 
   <!-- Backbone.ViewModel -->
   <script src='../backbone.viewmodel.js'></script>
+  <script src='../backbone.viewcollection.js'></script>
   <script src='../backbone.virtual.js'></script>
   <script src='../backbone.binding.js'></script>
   <script src='../lib/bindings.js'></script>