Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platform?

Re:Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platf... by chm on Monday April 28, 2014 @03:35AM (#7658684)

Hmmm... Try these tidbits:

NodeJS is a JS interpreter. You can run Node and execute JS code inside it. Node is written in C/C++, like V8, and so it can be compiled for a lot of architectures. You can therefore run JS code "natively" on a machine. Node is single-threaded, event-driven, and can do IO. It's not a framework. It has a set of standard features (just like Python has a standard library) like an HTTP server for example. Frameworks for Node are written in JS and use the standard library to facilitate development of complex apps. Express is a popular Node framework to write web servers.

Need more?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NodeJS

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/what-is-node.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1884724/what-is-node-js

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-node-js-and-why-should-...

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Re:Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platf... by fka on Monday April 28, 2014 @03:44AM (#7658705)

Is NodeJS "like V8" or "on V8"?

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Re:Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platf... by hasancc on Monday April 28, 2014 @04:09AM (#7658778)

neither. It just uses v8 to execute the interpreter output which is still javascript code.

V8 converts javascript to machine code, and node.js basically acts as a middle man to add functionality to javascript like "event driven programming" which can't be implemented through a basic framework.

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Re:Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platf... by fka on Monday April 28, 2014 @04:18AM (#7658795)

Are you sure? v8 itself is already event-driven. If not, Chrome wouldn't work event-driven.

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Re:Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platf... by hasancc on Monday April 28, 2014 @04:40AM (#7658863)

Yes Chrome is event driven, but Chrome is a sandbox which limits your I/O capabilities. Node.js on the other hand, is obviusly not a browser, so you can actually do I/Os with the system not only the sandbox.

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