What is Node.JS

Node.js is an upcoming  new technology that has already got a lot of attention. Top notch tech companies like  Microsoft, VMWare, Ebay, Yahoo, and many more are using node. Node.js is the amazing skill to open up new career opportunities  for a  programmer.

Normally JavaScript runs on client side or browser but Node.JS is known as JavaScript on server side. Node runs on V8 JavaScript runtime – the super-fast JavaScript  engine that runs in the Chrome browser by Google.

Node’s asynchronous, event-driven I/O model makes it easy for developers who have JavaScript knowledge to build high performance,  scalable, and  concurrent web applications rapidly.

If you are already familiar with server side languages like PHP, ASP.Net , Ruby etc and you have used JavaScript for validation or any library like jQuery. Then  you will be of the view that JavaScript is a client side language but NodeJs is called JavaScript on serer side. Yes JavaScript that runs on server side like other server side languages. One can develop highly scalable real time applications n Node js. In upcoming series of tutorials we wil develop a fully function Node Js application.

Node js is available for donwload for Windows, Mac and Linux platforms. you can download Node from http://nodejs.org/.  Windows users can download msi or exe installers and follow the instructions. It is very easy step by step process and you will able  to run Node in less then 10 minutes. you can find official instructions for installation here.

In our next lesson we will start writing programs in Node Js.