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The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

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Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#41

Post by integraton »

MetaCosm wrote: post #31
VeejayRampay wrote: post #23

Isn't Node also coming 10 years late to the party? It's always easier to join the race at a later time when all you have to do is copy the efforts of others and catch up. Especially since Node has quite a few users and a lot of early days hype to sail on. That being said, good on them and good on the variety it offers people. I just wouldn't say it's "changing the face of open source" though...

It came late (but at the perfect time) -- it lowered the barrier to entry -- it changed the default licensing -- it leveraged existing systems (github). In short, it didn't do any amazing -- but by simply combining the right tech at the right time, the result is something IMHO much better than pip or gem or X.

What do you mean by "it changed the default licensing"?

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#42

Post by MetaCosm »

integraton wrote: post #41
MetaCosm wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It came late (but at the perfect time) -- it lowered the barrier to entry -- it changed the default licensing -- it leveraged existing systems (github). In short, it didn't do any amazing -- but by simply combining the right tech at the right time, the result is something IMHO much better than pip or gem or X.

What do you mean by "it changed the default licensing"?

Lots of other communities tend to default to GPL.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#43

Post by integraton »

MetaCosm wrote: post #42
integraton wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "it changed the default licensing"?

Lots of other communities tend to default to GPL.

That doesn't answer the question.

Also, the MIT license was essentially universal for Ruby projects, popular in other ecosystems, and very widespread on GitHub before node's existence and subsequent growth.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#44

Post by daGrevis »

shadowmint wrote: post #15

Obviously if Node doesnt come 'batteries included' then you have to re-invent-from-scratch all the tools like package management, dependency management, MVC libraries, etc. That doesn't mean the community is amazing and wants to contribute! ...it means, that those features didn't exist, and someone had to do them (and yes, it's really great that they're all coming out open source, but it's not revolutionary) Any lang…

> you have to re-invent-from-scratch all the tools

If they are in standard library, they must be invented before too! The difference is that there isn't standard solution (hence the name) and anyone can offer his/her own solution to the problem.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#45

Post by jawr »

Xcelerate wrote: post #36
shadowmint wrote: post #15

Obviously if Node doesnt come 'batteries included' then you have to re-invent-from-scratch all the tools like package management, dependency management, MVC libraries, etc. That doesn't mean the community is amazing and wants to contribute! ...it means, that those features didn't exist, and someone had to do them (and yes, it's really great that they're all coming out open source, but it's not revolutionary) Any lang…

I like the fact that Node comes with a small core. I'm tired of vast, bloated, incomprehensible libraries that are going to take me more time to learn how to use than they'll be worth.

I'm sure eventually node will have it's very own Tornado/Twisted/Boost/etc that you can then apply to your argument.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#47

Post by argonaut »

dagw wrote: post #38
pistacchioso wrote: post #28

Irrelevant but I must say it: Node.js forced async IO is its strength but programming it is a pain in the butt.

I used to think so too, then I stopped trying to use it for everything and started treat it as a DSL for just writing IO heavy asynchronous web services, and now I'm much happier.

This sounds interesting. Can you elaborate on what you mean? Do you mean using node in conjunction with another backend language/[micro-]framework?

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#48

Post by camus »

pistacchioso wrote: post #28

Irrelevant but I must say it: Node.js forced async IO is its strength but programming it is a pain in the butt.

node is designed for async io, is fast , but not that fast when it comes to heavy sync calculations , i guess it is not for everything. but since most webdevs know javascript it is the perfect buddy for any other solution out there.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#49

Post by dagw »

argonaut wrote: post #47
dagw wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to think so too, then I stopped trying to use it for everything and started treat it as a DSL for just writing IO heavy asynchronous web services, and now I'm much happier.

This sounds interesting. Can you elaborate on what you mean? Do you mean using node in conjunction with another backend language/[micro-]framework?

Basically. My general setup (to the extent that it is reasonable) is to set up my web apps as a collection of freestanding APIs that simply send and receive JSON. The only component in common between the APIs is the back end database(s). This way I can write each API using the framework/language that makes most sense for the task and simply chuck Nginx in front of the whole thing to have it route requests to the right back end.

Re: The Node.js Community is Quietly Changing the Face of Open Source

#50

Post by dr_faustus »

Its ridiculous to compare the take up of an execution environment to that of new programming languages. Of course it takes MUCH longer for a language to get traction than for a simple piece of infrastructure using a language that has been around for 14 years (at the time of node's inception).

Many packages in npm are just code which has been around for quite some time before npm existed or it comes from the client and was repackaged for node (underscore, backbone, jquery ...). So to make the comparison fair, lets divide 26,966 by 18 years of JavaScript: 1496/year. Not bad, but certainly far from game changing considerin the inclusion of JS in all major browsers gave that language an initial boost that Ruby and Python never had...

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