Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
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Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
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Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#2> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever.
Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back and say "huh, guess this isn't so great after all".
Huge props to the guy.
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#3> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
Agree. It takes a lot to walk away from something and say you were wrong.
But, sadly, part of the saga of nodejs could have been avoided by people looking at the history of computing. If you look at Go's concurrency model it was entirely mapped out in the 1970s in CSP. There wasn't really any need for go the 'single thread, non-blocking' route that nodejs took and evangelize it as nirvana. There was a ton of distributed systems work done in the 1970s. Just look at Lamport's clocks paper.
I'm not criticizing Dahl directly here, more a sense that people ignore history in a field that has only had history for far less than a century.
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#4> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
That was me and my thesis. I defended it, graduated, and the next day I was like "I don't want to ever look at this pile of trash again".
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#5> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
Agree. It takes a lot to walk away from something and say you were wrong. But, sadly, part of the saga of nodejs could have been avoided by people looking at the history of computing. If you look at Go's concurrency model it was entirely mapped out in the 1970s in CSP. There wasn't really any need for go the 'single thread, non-blocking' route that nodejs took and evangelize it as nirvana. There was a ton of distribu…
It is clear however that JS itself has benefited from Node in that it really increased attention on the language. It seems doubtful we'd have ES6 etc. without it
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#6> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
Agree. It takes a lot to walk away from something and say you were wrong. But, sadly, part of the saga of nodejs could have been avoided by people looking at the history of computing. If you look at Go's concurrency model it was entirely mapped out in the 1970s in CSP. There wasn't really any need for go the 'single thread, non-blocking' route that nodejs took and evangelize it as nirvana. There was a ton of distribu…
While you are sort of right, the non-blocking thing was basically necessary to get JS on the server working. And while he was focused on the I/O thing, he accomplished a lot of things by accident, including making a really convenient server platform for JS.
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
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Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#8> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
Agree. It takes a lot to walk away from something and say you were wrong. But, sadly, part of the saga of nodejs could have been avoided by people looking at the history of computing. If you look at Go's concurrency model it was entirely mapped out in the 1970s in CSP. There wasn't really any need for go the 'single thread, non-blocking' route that nodejs took and evangelize it as nirvana. There was a ton of distribu…
It might be because it's relatively easy to end up doing something computing related without studying it directly.
This was the case for Dahl and many others. It's definitely possible to catch up on the history of the field while you're working in it, but not everyone can find the time to do so.
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree. It takes a lot to walk away from something and say you were wrong. But, sadly, part of the saga of nodejs could have been avoided by people looking at the history of computing. If you look at Go's concurrency model it was entirely mapped out in the 1970s in CSP. There wasn't really any need for go the 'single thread, non-blocking' route that nodejs took and evangelize it as nirvana. There was a ton of distribu…
While you are sort of right, the non-blocking thing was basically necessary to get JS on the server working. And while he was focused on the I/O thing, he accomplished a lot of things by accident, including making a really convenient server platform for JS.
Right, but the whole reason for JS on the server was because JS had no I/O, so he could do the non-blocking thing.
JS on the server was the means, not the end.
Re: Interview with Ryan Dahl, Creator of Node.js
#10> That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would definitely use Go for that. And honestly, that's basically the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server side system ever. Really interesting. I can imagine others would refuse to give up on the thing they'd worked so hard on. But Dahl has the self-awareness to just step back an…
Well he does work for Google. We don't know if there is any pressure for him to be be a Govangelist.