Viral Graph of Github Repositories Shows the Rise of JavaScript Since 2008

In creating the school, Hack Reactor's founders had to make key decisions that would define the institution going forward. One of the most essential was which programming language to teach. At the time, there was one fairly obvious choice: Ruby. Ruby had been the dominant language of the last ten years. That’s why it turned a few heads when Hack Reactor decided to focus on JavaScript.

“Two years ago, when we chose JavaScript as the primary teaching language at Hack Reactor, things were different: it seemed like a risky decision or even an inadvisable one, compared to Ruby,” recalls Cofounder Shawn Drost.

Now, the wisdom of that decision has become clear. A graph of new github repositories from 2008-2013 shows the steady rise of JavaScript:

This graph, created by Donnie Berkholz, has been retweeted over 2,000 times, between the original and a slightly improved version he released shortly after. It has been seen by over a million people.

So how did Hack Reactor’s founders know in 2012 that JavaScript was the language of the future?

“It was only because the founders had been working in JavaScript,” Drost explains, “that we could foresee what has come to pass since then: every app on the internet is being gradually rewritten in JavaScript. At this point it's so clear that many schools, like Fullstack Academy, are retooling their entire curriculum to use JavaScript instead of Ruby.”

While Hack Reactor does focus on JavaScript, the greater task of our Instructors is to use JavaScript to teach Computer Science fundamentals. This way, our graduates are equipped with a core understanding that will last them a full career, whether in work that’s JavaScript-focused or more language agnostic.

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