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Ask HN: What is Node.js? Framework, VM, stdlib or a platform?

8 points by fka ↗ HN
What is the place of Node.js on a standart stack? It's like VM but, V8 is like. It's framework-like, but not. JavaScript is the language, V8 is the interpreter and the VM-ish...

I'm completely confused. Can someone help me to figure it out?

10 comments

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chm
Hmmm... Try these tidbits:

NodeJS is a JS interpreter. You can run Node and execute JS code inside it. Node is written in C/C++, like V8, and so it can be compiled for a lot of architectures. You can therefore run JS code "natively" on a machine. Node is single-threaded, event-driven, and can do IO. It's not a framework. It has a set of standard features (just like Python has a standard library) like an HTTP server for example. Frameworks for Node are written in JS and use the standard library to facilitate development of complex apps. Express is a popular Node framework to write web servers.

Need more?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NodeJS

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/07/what-is-node.html

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1884724/what-is-node-js

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/what-is-node-js-and-why-should-...

fka
Is NodeJS "like V8" or "on V8"?
hasancc
neither. It just uses v8 to execute the interpreter output which is still javascript code.

V8 converts javascript to machine code, and node.js basically acts as a middle man to add functionality to javascript like "event driven programming" which can't be implemented through a basic framework.

fka
Are you sure? v8 itself is already event-driven. If not, Chrome wouldn't work event-driven.
hasancc
Yes Chrome is event driven, but Chrome is a sandbox which limits your I/O capabilities. Node.js on the other hand, is obviusly not a browser, so you can actually do I/Os with the system not only the sandbox.
sdogruyol
Actually Node is a well packaged platform-like runtime built mainly upon these : V8, libeio, libuv and others ( DNS, OpenSSL e.g )

What makes it unique is that you use Node Standart Library with Javascript to harness the power of those.

ilaksh
JavaScript is generally NOT interpreted anymore. For the majority of runtime it is running as native code. Node.js is a platform. If you are that confused then you will need to spend a few weeks using it to understand it.