31 March 2016

JavaScript Ecosystem

JavaScript ecosystem is huge and it gets even bigger when one includes Nodejs applications. Keeping track of new trends can be difficult as it grows in so many different directions at such a rapid pace. One can obviously keep abreast of the changes through community meetups and even Github for that matter. In fact, choosing the right library for an application can pose a dilemma as one is just so spoilt for choice when it comes to JavaScript. However, there is no official standardization in place apart from the actively 'worked on' ECMAScript. It is like a mushroom cloud of libraries in the community that just keeps getting bigger. Also, as new libraries evolve, others seem to die out or lose traction with complete lack of support. There seems to be no formal quality assurance or a standards driven approval process like some other languages. Apparently, it seems JavaScript community is very much driven by trends and at times that can even dictate the choice of libraries used in the applications as a form of value or impact to the business. Naturally this also adds a degree of risk. The current trends are of reactive applications. The following links provide some aggregated view of Javascript ecosystem and the different trends for the various libraries.

Javascripting
Libscore
Libscore Search
List of JavaScript libraries
awesome javascript
whats happening in the javascript ecosystem
what to expect from javascript in 2016 beyond the browser