Node.js was developed by Ryan Dahl and other developers working at Joyent. It was first released in 2009 supporting only Linux. In 2011, windows version was released.
It is used to build fast and scalable network applications as well as data-intensive real-time web applications. All versions of Node.js are starting from 0.1.0 releases to 0.1.x, 0.2.x, 0.3.x, 0.4.x, 0.5.x, 0.6.x, 0.7.x, 0.8.x, 0.9.x, 0.10.x, 0.11.x, and 0.12.x. Before merging of Node.js and io.js, it’s last versions was Node.js v0.12.9.
V8 is written in C++ language and implements ECMA Script (ES5). V8 is used in Google Chrome and can be run standalone or can be embedded into any C++ application.
It means a Node.js site will never lock up and can support thousands of concurrent users. In this way Node.js plays the role of web server like Apache and IIS. Actually, Node.js allows you to process new requests without waiting for back-end services to respond.
Node.js is also great for mobile applications, which typically rely on an API server to service requests from thousands of devices at once.
Node.js Application Area
Node.js can be used to create following types of applications.
E-Commerce Web Applications
Social Media Applications
Real-time data Applications like Multiplayer Games, Stock Trading, Chat App etc.
Data Streaming Applications
High Concurrency Applications
File Uploading Tools
Process Monitoring Tools
HTTP Web Server
Who use Node.js
Node.js Platform Support
Node.js supports following platforms:
Mac OS X
IDE for Node.js Development
Visual Studio 2013, 2015 or higher
Visual Studio Code
Node app can not be deploy on your existing hosts like shared web hosting etc.
You can use VPS and dedicated servers to install node and run your app.
The easiest way to deploy your node app is to use a scalable service like Heroku, which is completely free and you only need to pay when you are using more resources.
What do you think?
I hope, now you have better understanding about Node.js. I would like to have feedback from my blog readers. Your valuable feedback, question, or comments about this article are always welcome.