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Anyone using Javascript on server side?

7 points by snowstorm ↗ HN
I see plenty of frameworks try to promote Javascript to be used on server-side:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Server-side_JavaScript http://www.joyeur.com/2009/01/14/joyent-acquires-reasonably-smart

I seriously doubt exiting server-side developers would use Javascript for server-side programming.

It doesn't make much sense to me as there are plenty of mature languages for server-side.

so is it just for front-end developers to apply their Javascript magic on server-side?

4 comments

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tower10
I prototyped a Rails-like framework in JavaScript using Rhino and Servlets and was suprised how feasible the whole thing seemed for a production website. JavaScript is perfectly capable for this IMO.

The benefits come when you start to re-use code on the front- and back-end. An obvious example is form validation business rules. Using the same models can be really handy in AJAX-heavy apps, too. It can be very DRY if done right.

I saw that someone recently wrote a V8 module for Apache - that could lead to some really interesting developments.

axod
I plan to use this in Mibbit, as a plugin system. Probably Rhino.

The idea would be that someone can write a backend and frontend component, submit them, and it'll be a little plugin app.

So you could have a whiteboard, multiplayer tetris, etc etc appearing next to the IRC chat.