Now programming tools are often a means to another end--encouraging programmers to produce the software that will make Windows or the Palm Pre useful and therefore popular, for example.

JavaScript tools and frameworks thrive and evolve in an ecosystem that is equal parts competitive and collaborative. This month, we showcase some of the best examples of technology innovation in ...

That's cool – it means that JavaScript programs don't have to worry about the details of a client system as long as it conforms to the language specification.

An example of Node.js code that launches a Web server and creates ASCII art from a JPEG image being executed from within COBOL code. Because we can. Credit: Bizău Ionică ...