Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js • Hacker News Board

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#11

Post by hengli » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 2:45 PM UTC

AdrianRossouw wrote: post #2

We pivoted from being a Drupal shop to being a Node.js shop just over a year ago. I don't think a single one of us has regretted that decision.

Exactly the same move here. We created ~2 dozen drupal sites and went to node.js in early 2011. There was about 4-5 months of learning curve, where we almost went back to drupal. The low level of abstraction in node.js resulted in some loss of productivity during that time. But over that time we stitched together sufficient little pieces of CMS capability that we have now fully recovered. And the benefits of working with node.js and javascript over php is pretty huge.

Our only regret now is not having moved to node.js sooner.

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#12

Post by hengli » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 3:04 PM UTC

danielhunt wrote: post #6

AdrianRossouw wrote: post #2

We pivoted from being a Drupal shop to being a Node.js shop just over a year ago. I don't think a single one of us has regretted that decision.

Having worked quite a bit in the Drupal world, since 4.6, I demand more info :) Node and Drupal are completely different beasts. Did you write a new system built on Node, that duplicates what you get with Drupal? Is any of your code public, so others can look into it?

I'm not the parent, but I have a similar story. I know numerous drupal people who are now doing node.js work. There is a great desire to make a 'drupal for node.js'. Hasn't quite been accomplished yet, but I know many people who have something that might amount to smallcore for node. I know I do. It's very difficult to actually publish usable code though.

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#13

Post by LocalPCGuy » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 8:15 PM UTC

peterhunt wrote: post #7

Come on, let's stop the Node.js ridiculous hype already. 1. It's JavaScript! JavaScript is a terrible language. The fact that you need to read "JavaScript: The GOod Parts" in order to use the damn thing is an indicator of that. I don't care that it's supposedly "lispy." 2. Code re-use at every level Does any project actually do this? Is there any sort of front-end library that actually works both in Node and in the b…

re: #1 - JavaScript is a very accessible language, and as such, there is a TON of bad code and examples. The fact that people write bad code doesn't make it a bad language, that is your opinion of the language and you are entitled to that but I would argue that opinion. Many people write high-quality code using JavaScript every day, and it can be a very elegant language.

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#14

Post by LocalPCGuy » Sun, Jan 08, 2012, 8:18 PM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #8

peterhunt wrote: post #7

Come on, let's stop the Node.js ridiculous hype already. 1. It's JavaScript! JavaScript is a terrible language. The fact that you need to read "JavaScript: The GOod Parts" in order to use the damn thing is an indicator of that. I don't care that it's supposedly "lispy." 2. Code re-use at every level Does any project actually do this? Is there any sort of front-end library that actually works both in Node and in the b…

I too hate Javascript, but mostly because it is not a language suited to go above a few houndred lines of code -- it is awesome to quickly add some interaction to a website. That said, Node.js is really well designed. I just wish it was done with some other less dynamic language.

JavaScript can easily go over a few hundred lines of code. Sure, you need to be organized about it, and if you aren't you quickly can devolve into a mess of nested callbacks and fragile function calls.

But with a little forethought as you write your code, you can write very complex programs with JavaScript and still have a very readable code-base.

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#15

Post by peterhunt » Mon, Jan 09, 2012, 2:47 AM UTC

LocalPCGuy wrote: post #13

peterhunt wrote: post #7

Come on, let's stop the Node.js ridiculous hype already. 1. It's JavaScript! JavaScript is a terrible language. The fact that you need to read "JavaScript: The GOod Parts" in order to use the damn thing is an indicator of that. I don't care that it's supposedly "lispy." 2. Code re-use at every level Does any project actually do this? Is there any sort of front-end library that actually works both in Node and in the b…

re: #1 - JavaScript is a very accessible language, and as such, there is a TON of bad code and examples. The fact that people write bad code doesn't make it a bad language, that is your opinion of the language and you are entitled to that but I would argue that opinion. Many people write high-quality code using JavaScript every day, and it can be a very elegant language.

Sure, there are bad examples, but it is still a terrible language. It has a horrific type system, encourages the use of globals, is the epitome of TMTOWTDI to the point where there's still no standardized module/object system which impedes collaboration and lacks language features like operator overloading that are present in most mainstream languages today.

I'm not saying you can't write good, elegant code in JS, I'm just saying that you have to fight the language to do it.

Re: Case study: How & why to build consumer apps with Node.js

#16

Post by peterhunt » Mon, Jan 09, 2012, 2:49 AM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #8

peterhunt wrote: post #7

Come on, let's stop the Node.js ridiculous hype already. 1. It's JavaScript! JavaScript is a terrible language. The fact that you need to read "JavaScript: The GOod Parts" in order to use the damn thing is an indicator of that. I don't care that it's supposedly "lispy." 2. Code re-use at every level Does any project actually do this? Is there any sort of front-end library that actually works both in Node and in the b…

I too hate Javascript, but mostly because it is not a language suited to go above a few houndred lines of code -- it is awesome to quickly add some interaction to a website. That said, Node.js is really well designed. I just wish it was done with some other less dynamic language.

I think that Node.js should have been implemented in a language that supports generators or coroutines as it's a more natural paradigm than callbacks.

I also think that rather than passing in callbacks, functions that do I/O should return Deferreds which allow for more elegant error handling and better flow control.