How to get started with Node.js - 10 Minute Jump Start Guide // Karl Düüna, Partner of nodeSWAT.com
Presentation: http://base.nodeswat.com/presentations/intro
E-mailing with Node.js // Andris Reinmann
Presentation: http://tahvel.info/node_meetup.pdf
Game development w/ Node.js //Martin Grüner
Presentation: http://bit.ly/UEcjmu
Node.js Security // Karl Düüna (MSc in Cyber Security)
Presentation: http://base.nodeswat.com/presentations/security
Digital agency Clock has done great job and gathered list of most compelling arguments for Node.js.
Here it is:
1. End-to-end Javascript
Single language allows the very appealing possibility of code reuse between the client and server. Instead of having to duplicate code in different languages, modules can be written in JavaScript and shared across your stack. Less code means less defects, reduced development time and will consolidate your testing.
2. Scalability
One of the secrets to Node’s massive scalability is the event-loop. This construct, which is fundamental to the architecture of Node, provides a completely different model for the handling of client connections than those of traditional web server technologies. The event- loop, which your Node.js applications are naturally built upon, transparently treats the connections from your clients extremely lightly. The memory usage per client is negligible, and as such a single Node.js server can handle hundreds of times more clients than a server with other languages.
3. Real-time web applications
Technologies such as WebSockets are poised to allow millions of concurrent users to enjoy latency-free interaction with web applications. This kind of massive concurrency is what Node.js really excels at.
4. Performance
Most Node apps are easily capable of handling thousands of concurrent connections on what could be considered moderate hardware by any standards.
5. Maximising use of hardware resources
Node is trivial to horizontally scale.
6. Thriving community
Node.js community is growing at an insane pace, attracting some of the smartest developers in the industry. This means that the Node ecosystem is growing every day and it’s also easy to get free and commercial support from various sources. Node is in fact so popular now that it is the most watched repository on GitHub, surpassing competitors such as Ruby on Rails.
7. Finding developers
Think of JavaScript whatever you want, but right now it’s becoming the “lingua franca” of computer programming.
8. Keeping development team happy
Node.js is simply a joy to work with.
9. Faster development time and great productivity gains
Large productivity gains will come from faster development time to market. The product you develop will go live faster thus enable your team to hit business deadlines and be more efficient.
10. Enterprise hosting options
The variety of cloud providers with direct support for Node is testament to its success and popularity, and as such gives you the ability to chose the criteria which best suits your company.
For example:
• Heavy-weights such as Microsoft offer PaaS hosting on Windows Azure, allowing deployment and launching of Node.js apps within minutes.
• Joyent (the developers of Node.js) offer unprecedented support on their SmartMachine platform.
Download full Clock’s “Ten Reasons Why You Need To Know About Node.js” from here: http://clock.co.uk/reasons
Top 10 performance takeaways for working with Node.js from LinkedIn Software Engineers:
Walmart is able to serve some very sophisticated features to mobile users on the client side using Node. It’s saving mobile shoppers a ton of time by customizing content based on device type and browser capabilities.
Now, on Walmart’s re-engineered Node-powered mobile app, all the front-end code gets executed on the back end.
“We’re really excited to have a viable back end for that,” he continued. “That’s why Node really excited us, and at Walmart, we’re doing a lot with that kind of architecture right now.”
“We rely on services all over the world,” Almaer continued “We do not control all of those services. Node allows us to front all these services… and scale up very nicely. It’s perfect for what we’re doing in mobile.”
And of course, large-scale Node projects come in handy when you’re recruiting, Galbraith pointed out, since curious hacker-types are eager to work with the latest technologies. However, Almaer warns that many applicants with JavaScript knowledge will also claim Node expertise — and those two disciplines, while related, are hardly equivalent.
While the mobile team did consider using HTML5 for Walmart’s mobile apps, they found it wanting. “We haven’t seen people create what we want for retail in an HTML5 app,” said Galbraith. “For us, hybrid is more interesting in something like what the LinkedIn app has done… it’s the same UI across all platforms, but it has a native experience.”
Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/24/why-walmart-is-using-node-js/#7WLzmgOqduogjkpo.99