Mozilla has open-sourced node-firefox, a collection of Node.js modules to help developers create Firefox OS apps. The modules allow developers to interact with Firefox using Mozilla’s DevTools remote protocol in their already existing Node.js tool chains, but through Mozilla’s WebIDE tool in a more terminal-based experience. Each module performs a different task in a separate … continue reading
The U.S. Army has released its first piece of open-source software. Dshell, this week’s GitHub Project of the Week, is an extensible network forensic analysis framework from the “cyber defenders” at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). The “forensic analysis” code has been in use for close to five years within the military to help … continue reading
After two years in development, the Scala team is finally ready to drop the experimental label off its Scala-to-JavaScript compiler and announce it is ready for production. In addition, the team announced version 0.6 of the compiler, Scala.js. According to Sébastien Doeraene, member of the Scala team, many users believe that Scala.js is already production-ready, … continue reading
Microsoft is reportedly investing as part of a US$70 million funding round in Cyanogen, an Android ROM company, aiming to wrest control of the open-source operating system away from Google. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft would be a minority investor in the company, and a source stated Microsoft’s interest is … continue reading
For this week’s GitHub project spotlight, we’re highlighting Shipit, a universal automation engine and deployment tool written in JavaScript. Capitalizing on the popularity of Node.js and previous GitHub Project of the Week io.js, Shipit adds another layer of streamlined simplicity to the JavaScript automation process. Built as an alternative to the Capistrano open-source script deployment … continue reading
Microsoft has announced the release of version 1.4 of its TypeScript superset JavaScript programming language in conjunction with the fifth community technology preview of Visual Studio 2015. TypeScript 1.4 adds a series of type system improvements, new template strings, and support for features from ECMAScript 6, the upcoming update to the JavaScript standard. TypeScript program … continue reading
In its latest programming language rankings, RedMonk announced Apple’s Swift language has risen 46 spots from No. 68 to No. 22 in the rankings from Q3 to Q4. “The growth that Swift experienced is essentially unprecedented in the history of these rankings,” the rankings report stated. “When we see dramatic growth from a language, it … continue reading
Happy 2015, GitHubbers! To kick off the new year, we’re retooling our weekly feature showcasing the most popular open-source projects on GitHub. Instead of simply listing the Top 5 trending projects each week, SD Times editors will put the spotlight on one particular open-source software project we feel is unique or brings something new and … continue reading
Firefox Hello, the WebRTC in-browser chat feature first included in Firefox 34, is now available to all with the launch of Firefox 35. The real-time communication feature allows users to start plug-in-free video chats within the browser in the form of a pop-up box, without the aid of a service such as Google Hangouts and … continue reading
Happy Almost 2015, GitHubbers! To cap off the year in GitHub, we have the Top 5 projects of the month of December. I wanted to do the Top 5 of 2014, but alas the GitHub trending feature doesn’t have a yearly time span option. #1: io.js, the month’s most popular project providing evented I/O for … continue reading
Google released a list of its must-have Android apps, rattling off 127 of the most highly recommended and highest rated apps in the Google Play Store. The apps, most of them free, range from popular favorites including Netflix, Shazam and Spotify to mobile applications with fast-growing user bases such as Quip, Pushbullet and Lumosity. Google’s full … continue reading
Bitcoin.org has released the Bitcoin Developer Guide, a list of detailed information about the bitcoin protocol and related specifications. The guide provides basic information about bitcoin as well as the steps and resources needed to start building bitcoin-based applications. The guide spans bitcoin-related development topics such as block chains, block height and forking, transactions and … continue reading
