Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. Node.js applications are written in JavaScript and can be run within the Node.js runtime on most popular server operating systems. Its work is hosted and supported by the Node.js Foundation, a Collaborative Project at Linux Foundation. Node.js provides an event-driven architecture and a non-blocking I/O API that optimizes an application’s throughput and scalability. These technologies are commonly used for real-time web applications. Node.js uses the Google V8 JavaScript engine to execute code, and a large percentage of the basic modules are written in JavaScript. Node.js contains a built-in library to allow applications to act as a Web server without a server like Apache or Nginx.
Node Js is available here.
Since the dawn of the web, there have been JavaScript onclick’s and onmouseover’s. Every web developer has coded a little JavaScript, even if that JavaScript was hacking a jQuery plugin. Finding web development talent is terribly difficult these days. So when choosing a web platform, why not choose the platform whose language is known by every web developer in the world? In Conclusion, A Bonus! But wait, there’s more! As with any platform or product, open-source or otherwise, its community is a huge influencing factor. And Node’s is second to none. From meetups to conferences, there are really smart people working on the ecosystem every day. At the same time, the community is welcoming. These same smart people are always willing to offer help to folks new to Node, or even programming in general. You won’t feel bad for asking a question on IRC or opening an issue. This community is also very active, with over 91,000 modules on npm.
Since Node.js is an asynchronous framework, it is able to handle multiple HTTP requests in tandem, and therefore handle more traffic than many competing back-end frameworks. Combine it with Node.js’s ease of development (since it uses popular language JavaScript), and you’ve got the technical explanation for why developers refer to Node.js as fast or “responsive.” Larger technology companies have already noticed the appeal. In 2011, LinkedIn swapped Ruby on Rails for an overhauled mobile app running Node.js. Since then, the Node.js GitHub page has recorded hundreds of companies, including eBay and Walmart, that are implementing Node.js for increasingly mobile purposes.
Node.js is still at the early buzz stage. I think, and I’m willing to bet on it, that it has a long run left ahead of it. And considering the first two points above, I think it’s a great fit for me. Already, with frameworks like npm and Express, the barrier to adoption is shrinking.
To be clear, I still love Python. Its been good to me over the years and I’ve written several production apps (see Postach.io and QuoteRobot) in it and regularly use it for quick server scripts. Node.js wasn’t actually my first choice, but I wanted something modern and designed for the new web. PHP, Python and Ruby are definitely not it. My first choice was to learn Go (golang) but time restrictions and the team skill-set didn’t line up with that route. A startups gotta hustle you know! Node was a happy medium that we could get hacking on right away.