Libscore Promises Easy Open Source Code Tracking

Open source software theoretically ensures that the best code becomes the most widely shared and used code. But how can open source developers know how many other projects are actually making use of their handiwork? An interesting new tool called Libscore aims to provide an answer — at least for Web developers.

Libscore's caveat is that the tool can measure only JavaScript contributions. So it won't be of any use to programmers who work in other languages.

Still, if you're a Web developer, Libscore does something interesting for the open source ecosystem by allowing developers to do more than "contribute to open source in a vacuum," as the project's developers put it. By scanning the world's leading one million websites each month, the tool figures out which JavaScript libraries they call, making it possible even for obscure, amateaur coders to find out who else across the wide reaches of the Web might be reusing their open source software.

To be sure, there are other methods, both qualitative and quantitative, for finding information like this. But they involve strategies like tracing code commits on major open source projects, or diff'ing source code, which is not practical on a massive scale. So for independent developers in particular, Libscore promises to open new opportunities.

For larger open source projects, too, tracing JavaScript library deployment across the Web can come in handy. It could be a way to find violations of open source licenses, or, more positively, coding talent.

And for open source developers of all stripes, it's another motive to write code, which is never a bad thing.