Amber.js, HelsinkiJS, csg.js, SilkJS
Amber
Note: Amber has now been renamed to Ember.js.
Amber.js (GitHub: amberjs / amber.js, License: MIT) by Yehuda Katz started life as SproutCore 2.0 but has been renamed to Amber.js to avoid potential confusion, as it’s actually a very different framework. While Katz calls SproutCore a “native-style widget library”, Amber.js is closer to a client-side MVC framework. Katz essentially describes Amber.js as lighter than SproutCore, and appealing to Backbone.js users.
In fact, Amber.js is surprisingly similar to Backbone.js, aiming to solve the problem of client-side data storage and synchronisation with view code. It uses the Handlebars templating library and some of its own modules to achieve this. There’s an example app available at todos20.strobeapp.com.
This seems like an interesting departure from SproutCore, but a few things concern me as a server-side (and client-side!) JavaScript developer. The project doesn’t ship with a package.json or use npm for distribution. The build process is based on Ruby, and tests are run with Ruby. Although it’s obvious that this project is aimed at any server-side language, since it’s a JavaScript-centric project I’d much prefer to see it using the tools I use for other JavaScript projects.
Also, from my brief experimentation with Amber.js, it doesn’t seem to address script loading. I feel like a project like this should include something like RequireJS and be developed using AMD-friendly modules.
Despite these complaints, I do like the minimal amount of boilerplate required compared to similar frameworks, and the project is already edging up to 1000 GitHub followers. Given the level of interest it has a promising future ahead.
HelsinkiJS
HelsinkiJS is being held on December 12th from 7pm to 9pm at Hietalahdenkatu 8 A 22, 5th floor. Two speakers are currently billed: Henri Bergius and Oleg Podsechin.
If you want to track future events, following @helsinkijs on Twitter should do the trick.
csg.js
csg.js (GitHub: evanw / csg.js, License: MIT) by Evan Wallace is a Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) library that implements “operations on meshes elegantly and concisely using BSP trees”. This might sound specialist 3D graphics talk, but the examples on the site do a good job of explaining it. There’s even an interactive example.
This makes a little 3D olive:
var a = CSG.cylinder({ radius: 1.35 });
var b = CSG.sphere({ radius: 1.35 });
a.setColor(1, 0, 0);
b.setColor(0, 1, 0);
return a.intersect(b);
SilkJS
SilkJS (GitHub: mschwartz / SilkJS) by Michael Schwartz is a C++ program that uses V8 to provide access to OS-level functions and libraries. There’s an ncurses.js example that demonstrates this.
SilkJS scripts expect a main() function. System libraries are linked to SilkJS itself, so the ncurses JavaScript example is made possible by the fact SilkJS includes a binding to ncurses.
The SilkJS Wiki contains more information on the project, including comparisons with Node and tips on building the project.
