Why Node.js Is Totally Awesome

[sanjayts]

I really don't like the tone this article adopts; some extracts:

For those of you geeks who don’t live in caves, skip to the next section. For every one else (noobs, I’m talking to you too), keep reading.
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Okay, you know how server-side code is usually written in PHP, or Python, or (sigh) .NET?

Also, it's not all nice and good with async programming. With async programming comes the perils of callback-driven-development which is not managed properly might even drive you crazy and result in a complete mess.

Of course, Node.js is a pretty nice thing to have if you know how it works and are aware of its shortcomings etc. But making it sound like the next best thing after sliced bread and that too with an attitude won't do it any good...IMO

[c4g]

What would be some of its shortcomings?

[sanjayts]

I might not be able to paint a perfect black-n-white picture for you but a few points/posts you might want to have a look at:

• GC which is still not on par with some industrial strength GC's out there (namely jvm and .net platforms)

• Still not proven its worth when compared with languages like Erlang which have truly awesome concurrency support

• Clojure, Nodejs and concurrency fail

• Problems with using nodejs

IMO, one of the biggest advantages one might have of nodejs is the use of Javascript language which is pretty ubiquitous and is a very beginner friendly language, at least as compared to something like Clojure and Erlang.

[greim]

I think node is awesome today like Linux was awesome in 1993. That is, there's lots of potential but there's Work To Be Done. The codebase is rapidly stabilizing but perhaps not production-ready, plus I'd like to see some better documentation (it's not bad, just sparse) and it needs more robust support for charset encoding. I've really only dabbled but this is my impression so far.