newspeak

How Node.js Got Big – ReadWrite.

I’ve been tracking Node.js for some time–probably since Bryan laid it and other work out at a dynamic fisl, in Porto Alegre, a year and a half ago. (I also knew Bryan and others at Joyent from Sun days.) The takeaway here is that Node.js is a general not particular tool; that it is flexible and not confining.

As Joyent’s Bryan Cantrill says,

“What was the killer app for Java? There wasn’t one. It was more that Java represented a collection of really good ideas, that traveled based on their own merit. People adopted Java for all the right reasons.”

The same goes for Node.js, he said. But it’s also that Node.js is what he calls “general purpose.” While other developers would shy away from championing the framework so strongly, Cantrill says, “if I had to pick one dynamic environment to take with me, I think Node.js would probably be my desert island dynamic language.”

For example: Node.js is especially popular among developers working on Web-based applications, like those for chatting and gaming. But Cantrill’s team actually used Node.js to develop command line tooling.

“I think that might be counterintuitive for some people,” he said. “They ask, ‘Why would you use Node for that?’ Our counter: ‘Because it’s the right tool for the job.’”

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