Node.js- The Hottest Property of Application Development at the Moment

Node.js’ growth has been fairytale-like, no matter, in the end, it successfully manages to squeeze into every nook and cranny. Earlier used as a web frontend development tool, it has also become a major cross-platform mobile development tool as a basic technology for a large number of platforms ranging from Apache Cordova/PhoneGap, React Native, NativeScript, Appcelerator Titanium. But do you think areas of application end here? Certainly not!

Node.js programming

What if when I say that the so-called Node.js framework is not actually a framework or a library, but it’s more like a runtime environment based on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine. Introduced back in 2009, the technology was immediately recognized as “the most exciting single piece of software in the current JavaScript universe”.

The open-source project was sponsored by Joyent, a cloud computing and hosting solutions provider. The company invested in a number of other technologies, such as Ruby on Rails framework, and provided hosting services to Twitter and LinkedIn. And later gained popularity as one of the first companies to use Node.js for its mobile application backend. Uber, eBay, Walmart, and Netflix adopted Node.js. However, things weren’t so happening until the recent wide adoption of Node.js came into being.

Now every technology has its strengths and weaknesses and Node.js is no exception!

Benefits of Node.js

• Easy to learn- JavaScript being one of the most popular programming languages is highly recommended for front-end development. I mean nearly each and every developer present on the earth is familiar with this universal language. And therefore, it becomes way easier for them to switch to using Node.js at the back-end. It requires less effort and less time to learn and work with, even for a junior Javascript programmer.
• Freedom in building apps- Ruby on Rails is a kind of framework that imposes rules and guidelines of developing software in a particular way and Node.js offers you much more space and freedom in doing things in your very own way. Yes, it is completely opinionated, which means you can start building everything from scratch. It can execute basic tasks, but gives you only the bare minimum from a fresh install, making it less restricted.
• Fullstack JS- Do you know before Node.js came into being, JavaScript was only used for client-side development. It was quite necessary to use a different server-side programming language. I mean one required to hire separate devs for backend and frontend. With the growing popularity, of Node.js full-stack JavaScript became a reality. Several companies have started offering high-end Node.js development services, making app deployment much easier and more efficient.
• Active community- Node.js development community is very active and vibrant group of developers who contribute to a constant improvement of Node.js. All thanks to the cooperation of JavaScript programmers and their input to the community you get access to a ton of readymade solutions. Even though it is still at a relatively early stage of development, the community is dynamically evolving and its members go the extra mile to provide others with best and reliable solutions.

Drawbacks

• Unstable API- One of the biggest disadvantages of Node.js development is that it highly lacks in terms of consistency. Node.js’ API changes frequently, and the changes are often backward-incompatible. During such times programmers are forced to make changes to the existing code base to make it compatible with the latest version of the Node.js API.
• More development time- Node.js being opinionated can also be seen as a drawback by some developers. Here you need to write everything from scratch which might also result in a decrease in productivity, slowing your work down, etc. However, if you cooperate with an experienced team of programmers who have internally developed a good process for developing and maintaining code, you do not have to worry about efficiency.
• Immaturity of tools- Although the core Node.js is stable in nature, packages in the npm registry are still of poor quality or have not been properly documented. Now in most of the open source ecosystem, there might be tools which have not been supervised so they may lack the quality and fail at meeting coding standards. The npm’s structure makes it harder to spot reliable packages. Therefore, you might need more experienced developers who can find tools that can be trusted.