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Node.js is an open source platform that allows you to build fast and scalable network applications using JavaScript. Node.js is built on top of V8, a modern JavaScript virtual machine that powers Google's Chrome web browser.

Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient.Node.js can handle multiple concurrent network connections with little overhead, making it ideal for data-intensive, real-time applications.

With Node.js, you can build many kinds of networked applications. For instance, you can use it to build a web application service, an HTTP proxy, a DNS server, an SMTP server, an IRC server, and basically any kind of process that is network intensive.

You program Node.js using JavaScript, which is the language that powers the Web. JavaScript is a powerful language that, when mastered, makes writing networked, event-driven applications fun and easy.

Node.js recognizes streams that are resistant to precarious network conditions and misbehaving clients. For instance, mobile clients are notoriously famous for having large latency network connections, which can put a big burden on servers by keeping around lots of connections and outstanding requests. By using streaming to handle data, you can use Node.js to control incoming and outgoing streams and enable your service to survive.

Also, Node.js makes it easy for you to use third-party open source modules. By using Node Package Manager (NPM), you can easily install, manage, and use any of the several modules contained in a big and growing repository. NPM also allows you to manage the modules your application depends on in an isolated way, allowing different applications installed in the same machine to depend on different versions of the same module without originating a conflict, for instance. Given the way it's designed, NPM even allows different versions of the same module to coexist in the same application.

Summary

In this article, we learned that Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O mode and can handle multiple concurrent network connections with little overhead.

Resources for Article :

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