Intro to coding and software development.
source of reading: Node.js on sitepoint.com
Node.js is a runtime built on JavaScript’s engine. It uses the Google Chrome’s V8 engine for running Javascript. It doesn’t run out of the browser though. It allows us to run JavaScript on our computers. Node fully supports ECMAscript 2015 (ES6). It comes bundled with npm, which is a JS package manager. ‘npm install’ [package name] will download a package and install it in your system. ‘npm init’ will create a package.json file specific to the directory you’re working out of. Certain JavaScript frameworks like React or Angular need npm and node to build their apps with. Node allows one to run JS on a server. Most servers spawn a thread in response to each request for handling of a lookup in a database, such as by PHP or Ruby. Node.js will respond to an event one instance at a time instead of building up a backlog of requests waiting for process. This causes less crashing of the servers and requires fewer servers to maintain a site. Node works well for building websites that handle live interaction- responsive I/O. It allows a developer to stick with one language, JavaScript, rather than switch between the client side and server side languages. Node also understands JSON files, which can be used by all ends of the JS platform. Node can be used to have JavaScript apps running on your PC.