Introduction
Node.js is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment and library that is used for running web applications outside the client’s browser.
It is used for server-side programming, and primarily deployed for non-blocking, event-driven servers, such as traditional web sites and back-end API services, but was originally designed with real-time, push-based architectures in mind. Every browser has its own version of a JS engine, and node.js is built on Google Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.
Node.js Official Documentation
What is Node.js?
Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment. It is a popular tool for almost any kind of project! Node.js runs the V8 JavaScript engine, Google Chrome’s core, outside the browser. This allows Node.js to be very performant. A Node.js app runs in a single process, without creating a new thread for every request. Node.js provides a set of asynchronous I/O primitives in its standard library that prevent JavaScript code from blocking and generally, libraries in Node.js are written using non-blocking paradigms, making blocking behavior the exception rather than the norm.
Why Node.js?
Node.js is a cross-platform runtime, perfect for a wide range of use cases. Its huge community makes it easy to get started. It uses the V8 engine to compile JavaScript and runs at lightning-fast speeds. Node.js applications are very scalable and maintainable. Cross-platform support allows the creation of all kinds of applications – desktop apps, software as a service, and even mobile applications. Node.js is perfect for data-intensive and real-time applications since it uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model, making it lightweight and efficient. With such a huge community, a vast collection of Node.js packages is available to simplify and boost development.
Nodejs vs Browser
Both the browser and Node.js use JavaScript as their programming language. Building apps that run in the browser is entirely different than building a Node.js application. Even though it’s always JavaScript, some key differences make the experience radically different
Running Node.js Code
The usual way to run a Node.js program is to run the globally available node command (once you install Node.js) and pass the name of the file you want to execute.