Eight years ago, May 27, 2009, is consider as a revolution for JavaScript. On this day Node.JS was released making web application development unify around a single programming language instead of depending upon different languages for writing server side script.
Node.js being an open source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment for executing JavaScript code server has changed the historical use of JavaScript for client side scripting. Earlier in JavaScript, scripts written were embedded in a webpage’s HTML, which use to run only client side in user’s web browser. In short, Node.js has facilitated JavaScript to be used for server side scripting which is further going to produce dynamic web page content before it is forwarded to the user web browser. Now don’t get mistaken by the name Node.js, here [.js] is not the extension fo the node but it’s a product name given to “Node.js”.
Node.js Stable Release
As on 15th June, 2015 Node.js 8.1.2 stable version was released.
Features Review of Node.js
- Asynchronous and event driven
Asynchronous means non blocking, in Node.js API calls are all non-blocking. Now it has an event mechanism which helps Node.js to get a response from previous API call while the service moves to next API call. In short, this Node based server never waits for an API to return data.
- Fast
As Node.js is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, it is very fast at the execution of codes.In short, it is super fast and compiles Java code into machine level code. A code which is readable by whatever hardware or operating system it’s being run upon.
- Single threaded but highly scalable model
Node.js use a single thread program which provides much larger requests as compared to traditional servers. Event looping of Node.js helps the server to respond in a non-blocking way.
- No buffering
Node.js applications never buffer any data, they just output the data in Chunks.
- License
Node.js is licensed under MIT.As per these
As per these features, Node.js has become so popular for creating APIs. it is reviewed best on the basis of following points:
- JSON all the time today
JavaScript Object Notation being practical and widely popular data exchange format has enabled JavaScript developers to quickly construct APIs etc.
- JavaScript is everywhere
Node.js being fast enough so it is more compatible with Google’s V8 engine. JavaScript event mechanism is in a straightforward way. Other languages too have their own mechanism for their own event systems. But they make a particular kind of performance mistake that is not entertained in JavaScript.
- Human Migration
Biggest force that is migrating towards javaScript is human as they have to do less mental switching between a Web browser and a server. To run the code in a uniform way between client and server they have unified the environment. This has simplified the model leading to increased productivity.
- Sharing
You can easily share packages of library code technically, culturally, legally and procedurally. But one thing to keep in mind, you can share code under the MIT license to make the cross-pollination of the code worry-free from an intellectual property perspective.
- Batteries not included
You have Node.js application and Node.js core, nd they are broken into small modules that can be shared and composed. Th kind of carefree nature of creating module also encourages experimentation in the community.
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