I’ve been using JavaScript since we used to call it DHTML or something like that. Things have changed dramatically for the language we all used to love hating. There’s is a new community, with new platforms and even a refreshed language about to land with the arrival of ES6.
While writing this blog post I remembered a post I wrote on 2009 when I announced that I was going to learn Python. This blog post is basically about the same thing. I’m going to dive into Node.js.
The only difference is that this time I’ve been using the language for years, if you count all the years I used it without really knowing it. I divide my JavaScript experience in two parts before and after JavaScript The Good Parts. Reading that book made me realize that JavaScript was a real language and not just a thing you had to use if you wanted to get fancy on the browser.
In the past year while working on Blimp I’ve learned a lot about JavaScript and about the new ecosystem that has emerged around things like Backbone.js and Node. Also having an awesome JavaScript developer (@Elving) always around has helped understand the new things a lot faster.
Why node.js?
Simple, the kinds of web apps I want to build in the near future are all going to be using web sockets and trying to do real-time interactions as much as possible. Node was built specially for this kind of thing and seems to be the more performant choice out of the box. It feels like the right tool for the job.
I already have a few projects in mind so my diving into Node should begin pretty soon. I’ll try to keep you posted.