In Pictures: 10 technologies shaping the future of IT

6. JavaScript replacements

JavaScript may be the most commonly executed code on the planet, but for all its success, everyone is moving on to the next thing. Some want to build entirely new languages that fix all of the troubles with JavaScript; others just want to translate their code into JavaScript so they can pretend they don't use it. Translated code is all the rage. Google's Web Toolkit cross-compiles Java into JavaScript so the developer types only properly typed Java code. Some translations are cosmetic: Programmers who write in CoffeeScript don't need to worry about much of JavaScript’s punctuation because the cross-compiler inserts it before it runs. Other translations, such as Google's Dart, are more ambitious, pointing to a future of ever more options.