As I've mentioned in a previous post, I've been wondering if learning a new language was worth it. What I'm realizing is that the tech stack for BuildItHub has to be a low cost of entry. The main reason is collaboration. I need to let any developer using any operating system, to easily get involved. That means .net is simply out of the picture. Yes, I know that visual studio express exists. And NO! I will not be pushing that gateway drug.
I wish with all my heart that the schism between .net and languages such as Ruby, Python and others didn't exist. They do exist, and we have to acknowledge that. The barriers are breaking down in our communities though. I have a lot of friends from both camps and they are starting to talk more. We are attending a lot of the same events and those events are including tech from all domains.
It has probably been said before, but no matter what camp you're in, javascript is something we all use if we do any kind of front end or RESTful API development. So this is where we will start. What I've decided is that in order to keep BuildItHub as open as possible we are going to use mainly a JavaScript stack. That could mean plain JavaScript, lots of libraries, probably knockout, sails.js or express js for the web framework, and node js behind the scenes. Perhaps CoffeeScript as well, if Brian doesn't veto it. This is going to be a lot of learning for me (and for those joining the project), but I'm excited about it and its software anyone can download and start using on almost any os.
Could JavaScript be the language to bring our two camps under one tent in other projects as well. I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet but I think in many ways it already has, and I predict it will even more so in the years to come.
