"I'd like to see Twisted take advantage of the hype around Node.js -- They're the same! Except Twisted is mature and does more. And is Python" -http://twitter.com/progrium/status/7900106071
sigh.. I know python is cool and all (and I know Jeff (progrium) somewhat), but being able to do development in the front-end and backend with the same language (javascript) makes things so much easier sometimes. I am by no means a python expert (I'm still learning), but the two languages just feel different, and I really really enjoy the prototypical/functional nature of javascript. Maybe python has this as well, and I'm just missing it? Anyway, node.js deserves all the hype it is getting.
There's one key difference between Node.js and Twisted / EventMachine / other non-blocking IO frameworks for existing languages: Node.js doesn't have any blocking function calls. You have to try really, really hard to block your event loop in Node.js. Every single library released for Node.js works asynchronously, and is hence safe to use.
Not having to even worry about whether or not a library I want to use is blocking is a really useful feature.
Hot as in cool: Etherpad. Almost one of a kind, taken over and closed down then open sourced after a large backlash. I think a good additional web concept to join wikis and forums and sidebar-chats.
Are you looking for something to use or something to contribute to or what?
If you really care about popular and trendy, get some real data e.g. from http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/ and be surprised that the most popular of the past week are a package of Microsoft Fonts and an ERP, Accounting and CRM app. The most popular of all time are eMule and Azaureus file sharing and Sourceforge.net itself and the Crystal Space 3D SDK.
In fact the most webby looking one in the lists seems to be PHPMyAdmin, of all things.
LÖVE (http://love2d.org/) -- a 2d game library for Lua. It's simple, easy to use, cross-platform, and allows for convenient distribution of finished products.
(It's not really popular or trendy, but I think it's cool and I like it a lot.)
WebKit/Chrome/V8 are leading the way in web standards implementation, with Firefox/Gecko/TraceMonkey also doing lots of great stuff.
Haskell is really taking off, both in terms of compiler improvements and in the size of the community and available libraries. I'm using it for several projects now.
MagLev, LuaJIT, Unladen Swallow, and V8 (again) are all exciting because they're bringing modern dynamic language VMs closer to Java-like (and sometimes even C-like) speeds.
Android - my phone runs an open source OS, I can install software on it without an app store, and it can run SSH, Python, and Lua. Sweet!
Redis - I wrote about why in October ( http://simonwillison.net/2009/Oct/22/redis/ ) and it's gained some awesome new features since then, including ordered sets and blocking fetch against queues. It's a very different beast from the other stuff that gets branded as NoSQL.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 125 ms ] threadAlso there's a growing, awesome community.
Edit: To the persons who downvoted me. I was not being sarcastic. I use stuff from the Jakarta project on a daily basis.
{project}
regardless of whether I like or dislike the project, and equally upvote everyone who posted
{project because .. reasons or thoughts or justifications or content which took some time to write ..}
But hardly anyone seems to have bothered, and I feel mean now so I've stopped. :/
"noSQL": Riak, MongoDB, Redis, (I think the "new-ness" has worn off CouchDB")
Trendy: node.js, ruby on rails, django, lift
*Really any "web framework that promises to make development easier"
It's built on top of EventMachine - Ruby equivalent of Twisted.
Not having to even worry about whether or not a library I want to use is blocking is a really useful feature.
Are you looking for something to use or something to contribute to or what?
If you really care about popular and trendy, get some real data e.g. from http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/ and be surprised that the most popular of the past week are a package of Microsoft Fonts and an ERP, Accounting and CRM app. The most popular of all time are eMule and Azaureus file sharing and Sourceforge.net itself and the Crystal Space 3D SDK.
In fact the most webby looking one in the lists seems to be PHPMyAdmin, of all things.
edit: naturally, 5 minutes after I wrote this we decided to go live with it http://news.ycombinator.com/edit?id=1069047
List seems to change fast.
"PostBooks ERP, accounting, CRM by xTuple - CRM, ERP, Accounting"
It shouldn't change fast if it is based on 7 days of traffic, but who knows what SForge does internally.
squeak
(It's not really popular or trendy, but I think it's cool and I like it a lot.)
Haskell is really taking off, both in terms of compiler improvements and in the size of the community and available libraries. I'm using it for several projects now.
MagLev, LuaJIT, Unladen Swallow, and V8 (again) are all exciting because they're bringing modern dynamic language VMs closer to Java-like (and sometimes even C-like) speeds.
Android - my phone runs an open source OS, I can install software on it without an app store, and it can run SSH, Python, and Lua. Sweet!
want to play with openframeworks and cvtypes, but haven't had time
Clojure/Lisp - I've had a Lisp like language on my languages-to-learn to-do list for long
Redis - Looks like an excellent NoSQL DB to begin learning this new concept with.