
Modules are akin to libraries in C or units in Pascal. Node.js uses a module architecture to simplify the creation of complex applications. Node.js is fast, but you will need to learn a few things in order to use it properly. When all is said and done, PHP is 93% slower than Node.js! PHP is notably faster with a smaller number of iterations, but that advantage quickly dissolves as the number of iterations increases. I ran each test ten times and averaged the results. I executed the two apps from the command line so that no server would delay the apps' execution. The following table lists the response times, in milliseconds, for these two simple applications: Number of iterations Var_dump ( microtime ( true ) - $start ) For example, here is the code for a simple Node.js application: This considerably reduces the number of resources used by the application.

One script handles all communication with the clients.

This can be overwhelming for new users, but the payoff is a high-performing web app (although a large part of JavaScript's performance is because of V8's optimized engine). For example, the HTTP module is minimal and unopinionated. With Node, you have to do a lot yourself. Most Node functions have promise equivalents now, so it's a good idea to convert the callback functions used here to their promise-based equivalents and compare the syntax. If you are using certain versions of Node functions, you use callbacks, which were designed before promises existed. For example, if you are reading a file on the file system, you will use an asynchronous function. This is the most important thing to remember about Node. Therefore, everything that would normally block the thread is instead executed in the background using promises.

Asynchronous ProgrammingĬhances are good that you are familiar with asynchronous programming it is, after all, the "A" in AJAX. To start using Node.js, you must first understand the differences between Node.js and traditional server-side scripting environments like PHP, Python, or Ruby. In this article, I will teach you some of the basics of Node.js and explain why it has become so popular. Event-driven programming can be overwhelming for beginners, which can make Node.js difficult to get started with.
