Node.js is Backwards

#1

Post by ankrgyl » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 10:44 PM UTC

Node.js is Backwards
blog.ankurgoyal.com

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#2

Post by thesz » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:11 PM UTC

Article is quite refreshing, given booming Node.js popularity.

This is what I thinking when reading all the discussions about Node.js (mainly here, at HN).

Disclaimer: I don't program in JS, and I won't touch it without six feet pole (read: code generator from some higher-level strongly-typed language).

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#3

Post by dscape » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:21 PM UTC

Very well written article summarizing some discussions that are apparently common in the erlang community.

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#4

Post by alnayyir » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:22 PM UTC

I've been saying this about Erlang and Node for awhile, and I don't know anybody who knows both Erlang and JS that takes Node seriously.

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#5

Post by skybrian » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:22 PM UTC

Sure, it's the reverse of goroutines, which allow you to do easy asynchronous programming using synchronous code.

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#6

Post by dreamdu5t » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:26 PM UTC

It seems like most people are using nodejs for the web, and nodejs includes a library for HTTP.

What are some good web libraries for Erlang?

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#7

Post by arturadib » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:29 PM UTC

OK fine, Duncan might not have chosen the best words when comparing Node to Erlang.

But how's Node.js "backwards"?

It seems to me that the author has picked on one statement by one individual, and turned that into a link-bait.

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#8

Post by jamwt » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:31 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #5

Sure, it's the reverse of goroutines, which allow you to do easy asynchronous programming using synchronous code.

.. or erlang processes. Or python greenlets. Or Haskell forkIO threads. Or libcoroutines.. Etc.

See: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1549023

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#9

Post by SeoxyS » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:32 PM UTC

Speaking of concurrent programming and parallelism. If you're not into functional programming, check out Apple's Grand Central Dispatch[1] and Objective-C Blocks[2].

Unless you write your own Objective-C http server and run it on Mac OS X Server (it's not that hard, I've done it), this isn't very useful for Web programming. However, if you're comparing the languages / frameworks themselves (you can use all three to code command line tools, for example), GCD becomes a very seductive option.

GCD works by throwing code blocks (obj-c closures) into queues, and letting the runtime do its magic. You can have it execute code synchronously, asynchronously, or in parallel.

GCD will optimize and distribute your blocks the the available CPU cores. You can even enumerate using blocks, and instead of doing loop iterations one by one, it'll distribute them to the cores in parallel.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Dispatch [2]: http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/cocoa/...

Re: Node.js is Backwards

#10

Post by jessedhillon » Mon, Jun 13, 2011, 11:34 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #6

It seems like most people are using nodejs for the web, and nodejs includes a library for HTTP. What are some good web libraries for Erlang?

Erlang HTTP server: http://www.erlang.org/doc/apps/inets/http_server.html

Webmachine, "A REST-based system for building web applications": https://bitbucket.org/justin/webmachine/wiki/Home