Node can be used for about any programming task just like any turing complete programming language coupled with system primitives.
The think that makes node standout if the great balance between abstraction and power. It's especially useful for web development because JavaScript is already used there in the browser and so using the same language on the server helps some. Personally I love to use node for other use cases. It great at anything that involves lots of network I/O and parallel streams or clients. I like to describe node as a scripting interface to your operating system. It provides a near ideal abstraction layer for all sorts of programs. On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 12:35 AM, Jason <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm a college student on summer break. So last week, in a moment of > un-idleness, the word "Node.js" popped into my head. "Hey, I remember seeing > this word on Hacker News!" I thought to myself. So I decided to see what the > fuss is about: I typed "Node.js" into my Chrome address bar and smashed > "Enter." > > Lo and behold, the first thing I did was read "The Node Beginner Book" at > nodebeginner.org. I read every word, and I made this little thing that > uploads and displays images. Along the way, I internalized all this Node > knowledge, and I can regurgitate it at will: > > Node is good for building fast, scalable network apps. > It's good at this because of its event-driven, non-blocking model. > I know what an event-driven, non-blocking model is because I know > JavaScript, I know what callbacks are, and I read "The Node Beginner Book." > Node runs on V8, the JavaScript engine that underlies Chrome. Thus, there's > a command-line interpreter. > On Ubuntu, you run Node programs on the command line. > You can write shell scripts with Node. > > And for the next week, I amassed a giant bookmarks folder of Node tutorials, > blog posts, and general resources. You know, the ones that pop up from > extensive googling: StackOverflow answers, Quora answers, nodetuts, the Node > wiki, howtonode, you name it. > > But I just don't get it. I've skimmed the API, I looked through the list of > modules, I explored Express (the framework) a bit. And one tiny voice in the > back of my head is screaming: what the heck is this all for? The only thing > that is complete and tangible to me is Wordsquared. Which is really darn > cool, sorta, but I don't really care about multiplayer web scrabble. Maybe > it's because I jumped into Node without a proper goal in mind, maybe it's > because I'm not all that interested in web apps, and maybe it's just that > I'm a f*cking idiot for aimlessly learning programming things. > > I don't know, this was more of a rant than anything else. I don't think I > even have a question to ask. But I think I'm going to do something else in > the meantime before school starts. Please comment on something I said if you > want. > > -- > Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ > Posting guidelines: > https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "nodejs" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en -- Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ Posting guidelines: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nodejs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en
