Node.JS is a server side javascript interpreter that changes the notion of how a server should work. It’s goal is to enable a programmer to build highly scalable applications that handle tens of thousands of simultaneous connections on a single server machine. Node.js is one of the most talked about technology today. To know how it works really, we picked it up for this Over the Air session.
Once we gathered up, it took a little while for some of the participants to get used to the event-driven programming style. Pretty soon, we were all working together on building a cool chat app. By the end of the day, we had a fully working version of a chat room app in which any user can enter the chat room by simply entering a nickname. Subsequent entries are posted to all logged in users. The right side pane shows all the logged in users.
This is a fairly decent basic version. Going forward, we plan to enhance the User Interface so that people can play games using the chat app; integrate the UI with the chat engine and enable users to be able to challenge each other to play while chatting.
First Impressions
Node.js is an excellent option for interactive apps. I will not hesitate to use Node.js in products that require interactive functionality like chat, auctions, online multiplayer games. One can use Node.js to suit a part of the product than building the complete product on it.
The fact that we can code server side with Javascript should make Javascript developers jump with joy. Code reuse between client and server side might actually be possible!
On the negative side, I am not sure if the event programming model is a good one on the server side. It might lead to spaghetti code with callbacks all over the place. Another thing is that though the community is very active and plug-ins are being developed at a rapid pace – it is still not a tried and tested technology at this moment!
