JavaScript has been gaining popularity in web browsers for some time now, but it’s only recently that it has gained footing running directly on servers. This is thanks largely in part to Node.JS.

Node harnesses the power of the V8 JavaScript Engine and provides OS hooks so you can do things like file I/O completely in JavaScript. If you haven’t heard of V8, it’s part of the technology behind Google Chrome that helps make it so fast.

So what’s so special about Node.JS? Simply put, Node introduces JavaScript’s event driven nature to the server side. This has tons of potential that ranges from web applications to custom scripts for data processing. Node can make it very easy to do parallel tasks without worrying about the issues that are typically introduced when doing multi-threaded programming. Also, since it’s JavaScript, just about any programmer can get their hands dirty right off the bat, the learning curve is minimal.

Node.JS is still very much in development mode and there are some rough edges. Despite being in it’s infant stages, Node has gathered quite a following in the open source community. The Node Package Manager (NPM) project collects libraries written by the community at large. If there’s something your project requires, be sure to check out the NPM page to see if a library exists.

Although Fieldstone Software hasn’t employed Node in any official projects as of yet, we’re keeping up to date with the technology and looking for opportunities to utilize it. If you have any interest in incorporating Node.JS into your projects, contact us today.