Node.js is one of the most exciting things to happen to server-side development in the last few years. Here you’ll find out why Node.js is a perfect fit for your next project and a better fit than existing languages for modern web development.

Speaker: Mikeal Rogers

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Contributed notes

node.js = v8 js engine + libev (C library inspired by libevent) + libeio + commonjs + HTTP

The community has sidestepped style and language wars by focusing on the platform and on non-blocking operations instead.

Concurrency in other languages

• Python's print() makes concurrency difficult
• Block-by-default looks like a transaction, but doesn't provide a transaction's guarantees
• Event-handling code can have side effects
• Idle loops are wasteful

Concurrency in node.js

• Events make I/O-based apps simpler
• Fewer moving parts

node.js supports both events and callbacks

• Callbacks are functions passed as the last argument to another function
• Callbacks defer processing until later
• Events block on processing while they're being called
• Events can be used sequentially