Node.js Is Helping Developers Get the Most Out of JavaScript

As one of the leading Node.js companies, NodeSource does a huge amount of Node.js development, Shaw said.

“We not only build things with Node.js, we literally build Node.js,” he said. “NodeSource leads the open-source Node.js project and is a founding member of the Node.js Foundation. Our open-source team members work on all aspects of the Node.js project from writing the code [to] managing the security working group, working on the CI/CD [continuous integration/continuous delivery] infrastructure and actively supporting the Node.js community.”

In addition, NodeSource uses Node.js for both front-end and back-end server-side development. Its services are built in Node.js. And its front end JavaScript is created with a Node.js tool chain that includes tools Browserify, Babel and React—all of which rely heavily on Node.js.

Node.js for Everything, Everywhere

“Node.js has proven to be effective not only to power the web through delivering APIs and UX [user experience], but in other places,” said Charlie Robbins, director of engineering for the UX platform at GoDaddy and also a Node.js Foundation board member.

“It is also widely used to deliver cross-platform desktop applications from companies like Microsoft, GitHub and Slack along with a growing number of IoT [internet of things] use cases enabled through Node.js.”

Depending on the use case, Node.js can exist anywhere. Developers are using it on their own machines to write applications. Web applications are running Node.js in the cloud. Desktop applications are running on Mac, Windows and Linux computers. Node.js is embedded on small, internet of things (IoT)-connected devices throughout the world.

“I was a very early adopter to Node.js in 2009 and the answer to ‘why Node?’ has not changed since my early days using and contributing to the platform: JavaScript,” Robbins said. “JavaScript is the most widely used and widely known programming language on the planet. There are more JavaScript programmers than any other language. There is more JavaScript code than any other language.”

Big supporters

Like many others, GoDaddy uses Node.js extensively for both front-end and server-side development. Robbins argues that nearly every front-end JavaScript application is powered by a Node.js build tool such as Webpack or Browserify.

“Beyond the front-end tool chain, Node.js excels at doing lots of small bits of work while waiting for a lot of other external asynchronous work to complete,” Robbins said. “What this means for developers is that if you’re generally getting data from your users, doing a tiny bit of work on it, and putting it into a database, then Node.js will absolutely do what you need.”

The notion of Node.js everywhere and the full-stack JavaScript developer appeals to Azat Marden, a technology fellow at Capital One, which uses Node.js for its Hygieia open-source DevOps dashboard and its orchestration layer software.

“Now I see teams where you have ninjas that can do front end, back end and can do a little bit of DevOps. Teams will become smaller,” Marden said. “You’ll have people doing both the back end and front end and that removes a lot of overhead.”

Mikeal Rogers, community manager for the Node.js Foundation, agrees.

“Folks are doing everything, everywhere with Node.js,” he said. However, the two largest growth areas the foundation is seeing are in new cloud services—on top of containers and in “serverless” environments—and in front-end tooling such as React and Yarn.

What does Walmart do with it? Continues on page 3…

Originally published on eWeek