What is Node.js?
What it is and what it can do.
As we all know JavaScript is a very prominent language that has been running the front-end development show for ages. This is because it rocks as a powerful scripting language for creating client-side applications. Unfortunately, in the past, it lacked the ability to run applications on the server-side. This has changed with the addition of Node.js.
What Node.js does in compile JavaScript directly into machine code. It extends the JavaScript API and allows the old server-side function too. Where it really shines is large scale app development. It uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model making it great for large data applications. Below, I’ve listed some other types of apps that you will find Node.js being used in.
- Real-Time Chats
- Complex Single-Page Applications
- Real-time collaboration tools
- Live Streaming Applications
- JSON APIs based Applications
It makes use of packages and modules to add features to the language. These libraries contain functions and are easily accessed using the node package manager, more commonly known as npm.
Other server-side technologies you are probably familiar with such as PHP, Ruby on Rails, Java, and ASP.net use a multi-threaded model. Simply, this means that each client request creates a new thread. Conversely, Node.js uses a single-threaded model architecture. This means that requests are executed using the same thread, however, there is an event loop, that handles generally asynchronous and non-clocking events. This reduces the server’s response time.
So the number of applications using Node.js is quickly growing. Below is a list I found of major brands using Node.js in their production.
- Netflix
- Trello
- Uber
- PayPal
- Medium
- eBay
- NASA
- Groupon
- Walmart
Learn more about Node.js here.
