JavaScript is a programming language which can be used on both front end and back end. Its popularity should mainly be attributed to its power in front end side. While people seem not realize its power in back end until the appearance of Node.js.
Node.js is a server-side software system designed for writing scalable Internet applications, notably web servers. Programs are written on the server side in JavaScript, using event-driven, asynchronous I/O to minimize overhead and maximize scalability.
It was widely known by programmers since Ryan Dahl presented a running IRC server in 400 lines of code at JSConf.eu in 2009. Why is it so popular now? Tim Mcnamara shared his opinion about Node.js's popularity.
Very low barrier for entry developers, if you have client side JavaScript experience, it will be more even faster for you to get into it. Idioms from web programming and the rest of the JavaScript world carry over quite nicely to Node.js. It's extremely simple to get up and running as well, there's no need to install/configure a web server for the HTTP examples to work. They just work.
The knowledge that systems written in Node.js will continue to get extremely fast. Google is investing heavily in the V8 JavaScript implementation. This means that anyone who writes code in node will find their software running faster over time by virtue of constant upstream improvements.
Moreover, once you've begun to do work with Node.js, you realize that there are a few cognitive hurdles to overcome. There is far less mental switching between the front and the back end of a web project.
The library support is also very clean. Everything that has been built to support Node.js works with other components very well. One of the problems with working with Twisted is that many of the Python libraries can't run because they block on I/O.
JavaScript is a very widely spoken language. Given the ubiquity of the web, it is the lingua franca of programming. This means that many people could come in to explore, regardless of their previous background. That means that the potential audience for the project are massive.
With that said, Node.js is extremely developer friendly. Among other things, the project has a few traits that are quite appealing:
- Excellent documentation & tutorial videos
- Package management from the start via npm.
- Doesn't have the taint of a vendor creating a vertical market with lock-in
- It has used Github from the start, which is far friendlier than comparable systems
With its popularity, we can expect more Node.js projects.
