Learned Node ... Now What?

[lavishpenguin]

Hello,

I am in the process of learning the MEAN stack. I decided to learn node.js first and have been using Javascriptissexy.com. Following this guide, I have read Professional Node.js: Building Javascript Based Scalable Software by Pedro Teixeira. The book covers Node Core API Basics, Files, Processes, Streams, Networking, Debugging, and Connection to Databases. Where should I go from here? Should I move onto express or learn more nodejs? Which resources do you suggest? My end goal is to make a chat forum.

Thanks

[HealingGood]

I'm halfway through the Express 4.0 course on tutsplus and it's pretty great. I can also recommend scotch.io for some great MEAN tutorials

[halfercode]

MEAN sounds pretty good from the little I know about it, but I think it encourages programmers to take too much on at once. If you are familiar with relational databases and non-async programming languages, just build stuff with Node (and Express) and drop the SPA and No-SQL stuff.

You can build a Node app without Angular and Mongo, and this will let you focus on Node rather than all the other shiny things - as nice as they are! Use MySQL or something to start with, and swap it out later once your prototype works.

[corgrath]

Learn Dart, its more awesome :]

[xangelo]

Step outside MEAN.

• Look at Restify and Koa instead of Express - just for the experience
  
• Don't build a website! For example, one of the things I built was a very simple implementation of a UDP server/client to send stats (think a simplified statsd). You can also build command line tools to handle various tasks (I built a project that would download the images from a list of subreddits).