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Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
11–20 of 110 posts
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#12The problem with Node.js is that it's very good at it's original purpose and terrible at everything else. Node.js is excellent for building network services. It is terrible at general server-side computing. If you need a server that consumes websocket connections, it's great. If you need to build a CLI script that installs and upgrades various software packages, not so much. If you need a chat server, it's great. If you need to build a CMS, not so much.
Node is great for building services. Not so much for software that consumes those services.
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#13Node was the best choice for our service, I'm willing to go to court with this. We need a fast fire and forget server to talk with Redis continuously, what's a better option? Erlang? I think there are ~3.6 developers in Israel that know Erlang.
Sinatra?
Why? we have two routes (twitter-connect, facebook-connect), socket.io and redis pub/sub. that's it.
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#14The problem with Node.js is that it's very good at it's original purpose and terrible at everything else. Node.js is excellent for building network services. It is terrible at general server-side computing. If you need a server that consumes websocket connections, it's great. If you need to build a CLI script that installs and upgrades various software packages, not so much. If you need a chat server, it's great. If…
I'm not sure why it is bad for building a CMS. Admittedly, node isn't all that mature so doing so might be a little lower level right now than doing the same with, say, Rails. But it has one huge advantage which is that any modern CMS is going to have a good chunk of client side code, and there are immense advantages to having the same language on the client and server.
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#15The problem was the hype. It was hyped as a silver bullet, and we even have issues like people who have drunk too much Node Kool-Aid thinking that Node has the absolute best multithreading solution, and anything else that doesn't work exactly like Node is therefore worse, when Node in fact merely has a polished-but-old-school approach to the problem. If people are upset that Node isn't a silver bullet, it's because t…
The "cloud" has been overhyped up the wazoo for years. That doesn't make PaaS meaningless or less useful.
PS. Could you point out a few egregious examples of the node community overhyping Node.js?
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sinatra?
Why? we have two routes (twitter-connect, facebook-connect), socket.io and redis pub/sub. that's it.
For no reason other than it would be a fine alternative. I'm sure your Node solution is performant and simple, and you should stick with that but no doubt a simple server written in ruby or haskell or python or anything really would get the same job done.
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you've spent any appreciable amount of time on Hacker News, you'd know that there has been pretty big hype behind Node.js. If you don't see it, you're not paying attention. Anecdotally, I work with a lot of fairly inexperienced developers with my clients, and I honestly can't tell you how many times they've suggested we "rewrite (x) in Node.js because it's faster" or "let's switch this to Redis" with no real reaso…
If you've spent any appreciable amount of time on Hacker News, you'd know that there has been pretty big hype behind Node.js A considerable percentage of HN's visitors deal in exactly the realm that node.js serves: that gooey layer between browser and back-end systems. This is like complaining that coffee enthusiasts are interested in burr grinders when it's entirely unsuitable for chipping tree branches. There is no…
Sure, like I said, it solves some really hard problems and makes some architectures easier to execute on. But frankly, about 20-30% (probably made up percentage alert :)) of the stuff I people using Node.js for on HN is really just tech wankery. There's no real reason to be using Node.js for it, even though they will tell you that it's the only thing that worked for that possible problem!
Likewise, another 10-20% is people converting working code from a perfectly suitable technology to Node.js because it's the new cool thing.
It's not that either of these cases is "wrong." They know their problems better than I do. But I've been doing web development for about 10 years, I've seen this cycle a few times, and I know that every new tech has ridiculous adherents that do that stuff (e.g., Rails went through the same cycle except for "productivity reasons"). Everything looks like an old and busted nail when you have a new and shiny hammer I guess.
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#18Good article. I never get why people of one language bash another language. No language is perfect for every task. Use what is good for you and works. Don't bash others because you don't use it.
You start getting into some deep philosophical stuff going down that path. Why is there such a huge Android vs iOS debate? Because people define themselves by what "team" they're on. Be it computers, phones, programming languages, sports, politics, etc. It's "us" vs "them".
Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#19Languages are tools. Good carpenters use the right tool for the right job. Can you use sand paper to sand a door down to fit the space? Sure...but there is a reason the plane was invented.
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Re: Node.js isn't a silver bullet, but it's still a bullet.
#20Just wanted to point out the apples to oranges comparison being made:
The article argues that node's sweet-spot is: "to enable real-time propagation of events and state-changes between clients. You could do the same thing with long-polling ajax or even frequent polling, but those both come with the cost of tying up unnecessary worker threads on the server and dealing with extra requests."
yes we all know that, that is why no one is suggesting that. the better comparison would be to put it up against twisted or event machine, which also use an event loop to do non-blocking IO. but you dont have to deal with callback hell, and even as a javascripter myself, I would say that I would rather code in python or ruby.
you dont have to use node to do real time, web sockets, etc.