This post looks at the top 10 JavaScript projects on GitHub that were created in the last 30 days. I'm using my hubReports project for the information and then looked into each entry to learn a little more about them. I've also linked each entry to its GitHub page and hubReports statistics page. This should be the start of a series of posts that'll I'll endeavour to put out monthly.

JavaScript on GitHub, Top 10 new projects for the last 30 days

1st: maxogden/cool-ascii-faces

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

Putting a smile on my face and my screen at the same time. This is a CLI, Node and Browser module for returning an ascii character based "face". That's all there is to it :-). I love how it has taken the number one spot and the fact it has had pull requests.

2nd: chjj/termcoin

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

A bitcoin (BTC) wallet for your terminal using Node.js. It uses bitcoind for the backend but is compatible with other cryptocurrency RPC servers, so it can also operate as your litecoin, dogecoin and other wallets.

3rd: maxogden/taco

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

Max Ogden with another entry in the charts. This time it's for a taco, his attempt at creating a "taco themed" PaaS for Node.js servers. He mentions that it's still early days (alpha quality), so if you do try it out, be careful and be sure to help him iron those bugs out.

The goal is to automate / configure everything to avoid the need to SSH in and configure stuff yourself. Checkout the repo page for more details and his feature wishlist if you're interested in helping out.

4th: seanhaufler/banned-bluebook

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

A possibly controversial entry from Sean Haufler. It's the source code for his Chrome Extension, which is designed to enhance the Yale Bluebook site with the ability to sort courses by average rating and workload. This is after Yale decided to block a website that did the exact same thing. See his blog post for more details.

5th: darthdeus/LightTable-Ruby

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

LightTable is a JavaScript (I think...) based IDE and this is a plugin for it that adds support for Ruby. Jakub Arnold states that it's simple at the moment but indicates that it'll grow more powerful as he takes it further.

note from this point on, the order won't match that on hubReports due to certain issues.

6th: substack/attractor

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

This project appears to focus on binding data between your frontend and backend modules, using HTML attributes. Initially we're shown data-binding similar to what you'd experience in AngularJs, applying a HTML attribute to an input box and HTML elsewhere, type in the box and the data magically updates in the respective places. We're then shown an example of "live-updating", having a Node.js web app keep the browser side bind updated with any database changes of the server-side data item.

7th: substack/git-http-backend

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

Another one from the amazing James Halliday (a.k.a. SubStack). This is a Node.js powered backend to serve a git repository over http. Create a repo or use an existing one and then fire this project up. You've then created a http server you can (at the very least) push to and clone from. It also makes mention of supporting your own git-{receive,upload}-pack implementations or it can make use of system versions.

8th: inear/devtools-shortcuts

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

A handy extension to Chrome's DevTools. It adds a shortcut tab to the elements sidebar-pane which will display a list of DOM elements that have been marked by having the HTML attributes inspect=true, inspect or data-inspect set. I've yet to try it out myself but many a time I've disliked having to dig through the DOM to find certain elements, it's nice to have a way to highlight them via an attribute.

9th: bevacqua/suchjs

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

This is a client side JavaScript library for browsers in the vain of jQuery. But not just any browsers, "Evergreen Browsers". What are they? Tom Dale has a great blog post detailing it which is definitely worth a read, but to quickly summarise it is a browser that updates itself without prompting the user (e.g. like Chrome updates). So for a project like this, it can provide essential jQuery-like methods using a lot less code as it won't worry about older browsers that require manual updates (read: linger around too long).

10th: cuducos/whiskyton

hubReport{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-primary} GitHub{:.btn .btn-sm .btn-info}

Not sure if this entry should have made it into the charts, but GitHub decided it was 85% JavaScript based. The server side of it is written in Python though. It's a web application designed to help you find whiskys you'd hopefully like via an open database it accesses. You can also try out a live version of the web app if you're tempted to have a tipple.