To Node or Not to Node

I’ve been hearing about Node off and on for a while now, but haven’t really looked into it very deeply until now. I’ve really come to enjoy JavaScript as a language since discovering jQuery a couple years ago. (Before that I tended to shy away from it because it was just so frustrating to deal with the DOM.) So, naturally, to be able to use it on the server as well as the client has a certain appeal to me.

When I read that the latest version of Node supported Windows—my home and native land—I decided to finally take it for a spin. I found a great beginner’s guide on Hacker News called The Node Beginner Book. Having gone through the book myself now, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see what it’s is all about. Did I mention it’s free?

Node is different from other web servers. It takes a bit more than dropping an index.html file in your web root to start serving web pages. But not too much. And I feel like my understanding of the HTTP process is more concrete and less don’t tread here-there be magic! than before.

Though, of course, there’s always frameworks to look into to bring back some of that ease-of-use since magic, once understood, is often helpful!