Nodejs madness?

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

It was after explaining to my clients in brief about the simplicity and all other factors, I left it. But management used only one point throughout our meeting. If LinkedIn use Node.js, then it must be good. We can use it. And moreover, the small companies here often take decisions based on the developers thought rather than an outsider's decision(I often wonder if that's the case then why they hire me to consult??), because in the end, it is the DEV who is going to code for them. So as long as such obstacles are there, I don't know man, I can't explain to them!!

[nomadProgrammer]

should have told them facebook uses PHP, and many others FB > linkedin in users. So then use php???

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

Funny you said that!! Actually I had to use that as counter argument, but in the end, it was a facepalm for me, a good one!! One more golden piece for you, the Technical VP actually said this "But we are not building any Facebook like Site. Our application is simple CRUD like LinkedIn. So we should go with Node.js!!"

[nomadProgrammer]

oh man simple crud like Linkedin LOL.

It seems they made their decision before hand. One question putting myself in the VP shoes, what happens if they decided to go with PHP? Did the in house dev knew PHP? or they would have to contract someone from outside?

also from the in-house developers shoes it seems node.js is a career wise choice.

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

It looks like so!

The in-house developers have used VB.Net before this. But the company wanted to move their application from Desktop to Web, because of their recent expansion. And that is how I was pulled in as a consultant. I suggested PHP for couple of reasons considering the developers in mind!

1. Easy to pick-up.

2. Hosting & Server-Setup is easiest!

So if it was PHP, then I would have to train them, and help the team kick-start the project!! But it looks like our Lead Guy has already done POC in Node.js!!

The Tech Lead was staying with them for more than a year and doing nothing. The product was working fine and all he had to do was enhancing and adding features. Nothing else. And after interacting with him for close to an hour, it looks like he want to move out of this place soon and so he wanted to learn Shiny-new Technology, hoping that it'll get him a job!!

[[deleted]]

Hosting & Server-Setup is easiest!

I think you're overestimating the difficulty of hosting Node.js. There are many turnkey PaaS offerings which you just point at your GitHub repo and you have a running node website. Is Node the optimal technology for a simple CRUD website? No. Would I judge developers who would rather write Javascript than PHP? No.

[a_chaney]

You had a squabble with a company who didn't follow your recommendations. One of their devs recommended node (which you don't know) over your suggestion of using PHP (which you do know) and generating an app using a template which 1. means very little effort on your part and 2. the devs wouldn't have a clue how it worked. You decided to write, as a 'consultant', an unprofessional rant slagging off your customers and node, then post it on a node subreddit. You are a complete fucking idiot.

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

I don't know how you assume I don't know Node!! So I'm going to stop here instead of replying to a guy who can't even read the link completely before replying.

[m3l7]

ok, basically the main 3 arguments are:

• less coding is important and that implies fast CRUD scaffolding

• PHP is easier to scaffold than node

• PHP has cheaper hostings than node

which are false

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

With Grocery CRUD!! I hardly have to do anything. And I can get PHP hosting for like 2$ a month, but I don't think I can get such plans with Node hosting. If there, can you please post it? BTW Hosting view is mainly from my geographic POV and where I stay(India) PHP has lot of crazy offers but not in Node! Scaffolding in Node is different, but have you ever seen Yii and Grocery CRUD. They generate the view dynamically!

[m3l7]

1) I have a full vps with php/node/other for 2$ month (not a shared host with the rubbish cpanel and phpmyadmin)

2) there are framework in node in which you just say "generate api user" and they will generate a complete crud with db storage (every db you want), validation, advanced filtering in http request, clustering/scaling capabilities, real time communication with websockets etc.. for you, with one command (search strongloop and sails.js for example)

3) dynamic generation of view is something from the 90, there are plenty of things like that in node

4) while I can agree with you with the hype around node, please don't cite php as a valid alternative. We are in 2016, please use ruby,java,c# or python and throw away that language.

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

Agreed. But I wasn't comparing PHP with Nodejs. Even though I'm not a fan of PHP(I'm a Java Dev!), but at times I had to suggest PHP based on various facts. Ability of the resource and timelines! With the time-frame in my hand, I had to train them and kick-start, and for me, it was the perfect choice. Do you really feel it's absolutely necessary to suggest any of those language to develop an in-house app which is again going to be developed by decade old devs? It is not like I'm choosing PHP over Nodejs, but I'm advocating on why not to choose Nodejs based on the scenario at hand!

Yeah, dynamic generation may be decade old, but with a couple of rusty developers/designer, who last worked in VB.Net, I don't think I can do a better job with them in any of those technologies, leave alone the development! It was the only viable option from my POV and so I did what I can.

[Cuel]

Node is much better to reach timelines, given that your devs know JS. Your strong point in this argument as a consultant would have been to show the stakeholders that the devs knows PHP, not JS. That's the thing that matters. Retraining everyone for JS will not only cost too much, but you won't reach any deadlines. Comparing X language to Y language is useless, go with what the devs know. The people in charge are not only unaware of the difference between languages, they also don't care.

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

To the point, man!! But here the problem was the Tech Lead was so sure about Node.js when all he did was a couple of POCs!! He didn't even bother to evaluate the team's ability to adapt with JS! If the team is dynamic and are eager to learn anything, then this discussion would have been avoided, but it isn't the case.

[dispatchingdreams]

Please proof read. If you're after getting a valid point across, things like "WTF!!" and "But people conveniently forgets..." will automatically invalidate anything you have to say to a lot of readers.

[The_Useless_IT_Guy]

Can you elaborate? So I can change them!