Node.js is an open-source and cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment. It is a popular tool for almost any kind of project!
A Node.js app runs in a single process, without creating a new thread for every request. Node.js provides a set of asynchronous I/O primitives in its standard library that prevent JavaScript code from blocking and generally, libraries in Node.js are written using non-blocking paradigms, making blocking behavior the exception rather than the norm.
When Node.js performs an I/O operation, like reading from the network, accessing a database or the filesystem, instead of blocking the thread and wasting CPU cycles waiting, Node.js will resume the operations when the response comes back.
This allows Node.js to handle thousands of concurrent connections with a single server without introducing the burden of managing thread concurrency, which could be a significant source of bugs.
Node.js has a unique advantage because millions of frontend developers that write JavaScript for the browser are now able to write the server-side code in addition to the client-side code without the need to learn a completely different language.
Installation of Node.js on Windows:
In this section, you will learn about the tools required and steps to setup development environment to develop a Node.js application.
Node.js development environment can be setup in Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris. The following tools/SDK are required for developing a Node.js application on any platform.
- Node.js
- Node Package Manager (NPM)
- IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or TextEditor
NPM (Node Package Manager) is included in Node.js installation since Node version 0.6.0., so there is no need to install it separately.
Download it from official website and choose the recommended one:
https://nodejs.org/
After installation check its version.
node -v
Installation of Node.js on Ubuntu:
On ubuntu, you just need to execute below command and it will be installed.
sudo apt install nodejs
Then chech the version.
node -v or node -version
