reading-notes/class301/class301-06.md at main · CodeFellows-esavage/reading-notes

Node.js Intro

Node.js (Current Installed Version: v14.18.0):

Definition: JavaScript Runtime (can execute code directly on a computer) that is built off of Google Chromes V8 JS Engine.
- the Chrome V8 JS Engine is what takes written JavaScript code and compiles it into executable code.
since node only runs on one runtime (V8) you don't have to worry about compatibility issues with other engines.
Uses:
- installing and running various build tools
- running JavaScript on the server
  - Benefits:
  - Node.js is event driven, so if a blocking event occurs Node.js will generate a callback and move onto processing the next event. Once the blocking event has finished the server will execute the callback and continue working on the original event.
    - long story short: very little server overhead
    - you can clone a Node.js app to share the workload in order to scale
  - Downsides:
  - single threaded
- well suited for real time interactions/collaboration
- handling a lot of I/O driven requests
- data streaming
- scripting language to automate tasks
- writing a command line tool
- cross-platform desktop apps
Advantages:
- scalability
- Front End/Back End are written in the same language
- it can understand JSON and pass it cleanly from Front End to Back End
- "easy to learn"

Npm: (Current Installed Version: 6.14.15)

Definition: the JavaScript package manager, which is also the world's largest software registry with over 1 million packages of JS code available for download
- to install a library/package called 'jshint':
```
npm install -g jshint
```

Pair programming allows you to focus on improving listening, speaking, reading, and writing, all while still learning to code!

6 Reasons for pair programming:

while it make take longer up front, the code developed is usually higher quality