What are all these JS libraries?

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The front-end web development space has progressed a lot during the past few years with a lot of various different types of Javascript (JS) tools and libraries coming out.  Here is a partial list of just some of them.  This is not an exhaustive list because new one comes up all the time.  They are listed in attempted alphabetical order.

  • AngularJS – Model-View-Whatever Framework  by Google.   Not kidding.  They call themselves  “Superheroic JavaScript MVW Framework”
  • Backbone.js – Front-end framework with model-view.
  • CanJS – yet another front-end web framework.
  • CreateJS – A suite of Javascript library consisting of EaselJS, TweenJS, SoundJS, PreloadJS
  • EaselJS – a higher-level way of working with canvas.  EaselJS to Canvas is like jQuery to Javascript. (part of the CreateJS suite)
  • Ember.JS – front-end web framework
  • enquire.js – javascript library for responding to CSS Media queries
  • NodeJS – Server-side javascript
  • PhantomJS – headless browser based on WebKit for testing
  • PreloadJS – JS library manage loading of library (part of the CreateJS suite)
  • Sails.js – Realtime MVC Framework for Node.js apps.  Good for chat apps, realtime dashboards, or multiplayer games.
  • SoundJS – JS library to work with audio (part of the CreateJS suite)
  • Respond.js – a polyfill to make min/max-width CSS3 Media Queries work for IE 6-8
  • Response.js – jQuery plugin to get or test responsive properties
  • TweenJS – Javascript library for tweening and animating (kind of like Flash).  Part of the CreateJS suite.
  • YepNope.js – a conditional resource loader.
  • ZombieJS – headless full-stack testing for NodeJS