Topic: Lisp
Parenscript is a compiler that takes a Lisp-like language and translates it to readable, efficient Javascript. It is a surprisingly powerful tool, considering that Parenscript does not really do much more than provide an S-expression syntax for Javascript (and HTML and CSS generation, although I use different tools for that).
I think Parenscript combined with Hunchentoot is one of the best tools out there right now for developing standards-compliant rich Internet applications. So it was unfortunate that as of a couple of weeks ago, Parenscript was without an active maintainer or its own resources (mailing list, repository, etc.). I have decided to step in as a maintainer and put up a project page for Parenscript on common-lisp.net. It is now less than a week old, but already there have been code contributions from new developers, which is certainly encouraging. Daniel Gackle and me are using Parenscript to develop the UI for our startup product, Skysheet (more on that in upcoming posts), so I get to "eat my own dog food", which was a big motivation for me to step in.