Open Source Web Development

One of the best ways to learn new skills is to get involved with open source web development projects. Here's a few I'm currently working on:

JavaScript Documentation Tools

Ext-Doc is an open source JavaScript documentation tool. Created and maintained by several members of the ExtJS community, Ext-Doc outputs your documentation using a template mimicking the ExtJS documentation. The tool is compatible on both Windows and Mac/Linux (it runs off Java) and fairly easy to setup.

JavaScript Unit Testing

For most developers (those using Java and C#, among many others) unit testing is a fairly easy process to start. However JavaScript (in particular AJAX) doesn't play nicely with unit tests. Not only do AJAX developers have to worry about variable scope (i.e. JavaScript's wonderful global namespace), but we also have to consider connection/latency issues. It is incredibly hard to write reliable tests that have to sit and physically wait for a server response.

I've spent a lot of time researching the subject, and while I'm no expert I can clearly see that frameworks like YUI and jQuery have successfully engineered JavaScript/AJAX unit tests. As an active member of the ExtJS community, I've decided to build a JavaScript Unit Testing tool using ExtJS.