Opinions on node js?

JavaScript
1

gm all.
Was wondering what all the js experts and ja glitterati thought of node js?
thx
D

2

it’s cool.

3

I’m not a js expert, so maybe I shouldn’t respond, but I’m starting a MEAN stack project with a colleague as a side project this fall. Neither of us is JS experts, neither have used Node.js or MongoDB. We’re looking to 1) Get better at JS. 2) Learn the basics++ of Node.js and 3) Learn more about the uses of NoSQL.

A distant 4) is come up with a valid application in the end :smiley:

I expect it’ll be easier to do in tandem with another programmer. When I was job hunting, I saw far more requests for Node.js / JavaScript than I did of the “standard” PHP devs.

For whatever that’s worth, since you’re probably in a different region with a different skill set.

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4

It’s insanely popular right now, it seems to be taking off like RoR did but for both the Startup and the Enterprise crowds.

I haven’t worked with it but it’s something I would like to do. Even though I haven’t had the time to learn it yet, I’ve started recommending it to anyone asking me how to get into web development for the sole reason that it reduces the amount of languages they have to learn. Takes away 2 languages if you use Mongo.

5

Hello jeffreylees. nope not at all. i want to improve my js skills as well and thought if forced to create an entire site w/it they might improve a bit faster.
And thx Mawburn, don’t know waht RoR or Mongo is but for now am just trying to get js into my skull. I am finding that i can read & understand the code better. but coding in it is far from natural and am very basic at it.
very very frustrating.
D

6

don’t know waht RoR or Mongo is

Ruby on Rails - Discourse and I think the rest of Sitepoint is built on this.
MongoDB - Basically a No-SQL Javascript based database where data is represented as JSON objects. It’s the M in MEAN.

but for now am just trying to get js into my skull.

It will take time. Have you done any learn-by-example courses like the ones on CodeAcademy?

7
  1. what you definitely need for node.js:
  • Closures
  • asynchronous setups (callbacks, Promises)
  1. I find it not very difficult, it ‘only’ doesn’t emphasize data relations as much as a RDBMS does.
8

yep done some codeacademy. heps of tutorials. so have a better grasp of it. but yeah. it’ll take time & patience is not one of my virutes.
RoR, I know folks who hate that.
D

9

i guess i would wonder. What is the benefit of creating a site w/node.js?
D

10
  • if you already know JS you don’t need to learn an extra server-side language
  • you can use the same rendering engine on server and client (cf. AJAX)
  • plays well with document-based databases
  • there’s a well-developed package management (npm)
11

Why? (just out of interest)

12

What is the benefit of creating a site w/node.js?

What’s the point of doing a website?

I mean, that’s kind of a subjective question. Javascript is a pretty good language and a lot better than some of the alternatives. Even if you hate Javascript, you’re still going to need to learn if you want to do web development anyway.

RoR, I know folks who hate that.

Most of them hate on it for absolutely no reason. People like to hate it because of it’s performance, but if you get a RoR app to the point where performance becomes an issue, you’re big enough to hire a few teams of top tier developers to fix it.

13

You might be looking at JavaScript through rose-colored glasses. :wink:

14

My personal feeling is that most current languages have uses and places where they’re arguably better than others… and all current languages have people who love them, and people who hate them - more often than not because they’re used to working with it and enjoy that familiarity, or their projects lend themselves to that language; or on the flip side, the hating can often come from a lack of familiarity, user error, etc - or it can come from the same place disliking a job can come from - flat out just don’t wanna be doing it anymore :wink:

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15

ok so…yes on them rose colored glasses!
Pullo, i went an asked, he is one of our top dev and said it was just for emotional/personal reasons. feels it is more of a cash cow with ops for classes and other such things.
Mawburn i don’t think that “benefit of creating a site w/node.js?” is the same as “What’s the point of doing a website?” i was wondering how creating a site w/node would be better and what i would gain from using it(except for the extra knowledge of course).
& of course thx Dormilich for your op.
D

16

All back-ends have this.

Where Node shines is real time communication and push updates(real time notifications), socket.io.
People do use it for complete web applications, you can look at the source of something like Ghost a blogging platform built in node, or create you’re own site with the popular Express framework to see how it feels.

I’ve been dabbling with it for a while now and still find there’s more mature and simpler ways to build typical web apps than using node but I haven’t built enough to say for sure. For example always having to think about concurrency comes with overhead - synchronous programs are a lot simpler to read, write and understand than follow through a lot of callback loops and events.
I do use node for compiling my assets(css, js, images).

This is just one persons opinion but I find the argument interesting

What people are producing in Node speaks for itself, socket.io, build systems like gulp, servers like Pow, code editors like Atom. Node is so hot right now.

Oh, and RoR is great :slight_smile: