Node.js stays close to its roots: Ultra-fast.
Recently one of the big node.js community stars, creator of the
express
middleware framework, the
jade templating language and
koa -- TJ
Holowaychuk -- announced that he was no longer going to be using
node.js [1]
. The main reason that he cited is the reason why we find
node.js so compelling: node.js was refusing to become easier to use, in
order to maintain its high efficiency. This is an efficiency that allows
it to run at high speed on the smallest of hardware configurations. An
efficiency that has allowed companies to reduce server farms by 75% in
some cases. Javascript is a difficult language to master - especially
if one has a background in OOP, it's "not-quite-classes" can really confuse
one. There are several patterns in which one can build hierarchical class structures, and these are mostly related to frameworks that have helpers to extend your objects. Dojo, YUI, Underscore are some such classical libraries. The fun thing about Javascript is that you can combine all these approaches as they work fine together. For a beginner this wide choice and freedom can be quite distracting, which is why it is often best to simply select one option and stick with it for a while.
Unless using Coffeescript (something you might enjoy if you like Ruby), it does require a certain amount of boilerplate and extra typing.
But it's typing load and complexity are nothing compared with assembly
language.
So in effect, TJ's words are very reassuring for the future of node.js.
He has not quite cut all ties as he says though.
October 13th 2014 07:10
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