Node.js is a platform from which tools are built, much like Ruby, Python, Bash, and C/C++. With Node.js comes `npm`, a tool for getting the tools. bower is als

Node.js is a platform from which tools are built, much like Ruby, Python, Bash, and C/C++. With Node.js comes `npm`, a tool for getting the tools. bower is also a package manager, IIRC. I'd avoid it. Isomorphic single page apps seemed to be buzzwords to me. Grunt, Broccoli, and Gulp are all tools used to create build scripts in the Node community. You only need one, and you could pick Grunt or Gulp with a coin flip and not be worse off. React, Backbone, Ember, Polymer, Angular...they're all client side JS frameworks. IMO, go with React if you want stability. But in any case, this is what you would use instead of YUI. And these tools work well with the rest of tools Yahoo mentioned. Mocha is a unit testing framework. You need some testing framework, and this is a good one. Casper...I think that's a headless web browser. Not sure, I've never used it. Evergreen web browsers is a buzzword for the practice of Mozilla and Google of putting out updates every 6 weeks. It's a state of the environment, not a technology. The explosion of tools in the JS environment started with Node.js. It was a critical point in the history of JS, and it means that if you want higher quality software, you have more tools to do so. Make sure you aren't choosing tools because they are trendy, but because they solve a problem you are having.