Introduction to Node.js

Welcome to the first part of the six-part course. By the end of this chapter, we’ll achieve the following:

• We’ll be able to explain what Node.js is and how it’s different from browsers.
• We’ll understand the difference between blocking and non-blocking patterns in Node.js.
• We’ll know how to use the Node.js Read-Evaluate-Print-Loop (REPL) environment.
• We’ll know how to use basic Node.js debugging tools.

Node.js overview

Node.js was first released in 2009 by a programmer named Ryan Dahl.

What is Node.js?

According to the official website, Node.js® is a JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.

Node.js enables JavaScript to run outside the browser. It can be used to build server-side applications that efficiently handle high traffic ...