the future of node - @rvagg - nodeconf christchurch 2015

March 31, 2015

by @rvagg

The Future of Node

The Essence of Node

1. JavaScript on the server

2. Asynchronous programming

3. Module-driven development

4. Small core, vibrant

ecosystem

5. New models in Open Source

The Essence of Node

JavaScript on the Server

So what?

• “Developer joy”

• Productive

• Approachable, sans quirks

• Massive pool of developers


The Future of Node

• JavaScript is not going away (Dart anyone?)

• Node adoption makes it “the language of the web”

• Helping to drive the future of JavaScript

• Challenges for learning as language complexity

increases


Asynchronous Programming

Eh?

• Alternative programmer mindset

• API focus on callbacks, events and streams

• Limits to Sync()-ability, generally shunned

• Single-threaded!


So what?

High-performance paradigm—performance comes free


System.out.println("Reading file...");

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("in.txt"));

try {

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

String line;

while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)

sb.append(line + "\n");

System.out.print(sb.toString());

} finally {

br.close();

}

System.out.println("Finished reading file!");

So what?

• Scalable:

• Handle huge amounts of I/O with single process

• Single-threaded encourages scalable design

patterns

• Reflective of how the world really works


The Future of Node

An ongoing battle over programming paradigms

• Promises

• Generator functions for async

• async await (ES7)

The human instinct is to make everything serial!


Module-driven Development

Eh?

• npm

• Module system solves most dependency-hell

problems

• Simplicity!


So what?

The holy-grail of decoupled and reusable coding


So what?

Small chunks of code:

• Focused concerns

• Testable

• Grokkable

• Documentable

• Sharable

• Ease of collaboration


module.exports = function archy (obj, prefix, opts) {

if (prefix === undefined) prefix = '';

if (!opts) opts = {};

var chr = function (s) {

var chars = {

'│' : '|',

'└' : '`',

'├' : '+',

'─' : '-',

'┬' : '-'

};

return opts.unicode === false ? chars[s] : s;

};

if (typeof obj === 'string') obj = { label : obj };

var nodes = obj.nodes || [];

var lines = (obj.label || '').split('\n');

var splitter = '\n' + prefix + (nodes.length ? chr('│') : ' ') + ' ';

return prefix

+ lines.join(splitter) + '\n'

+ nodes.map(function (node, ix) {

var last = ix === nodes.length - 1;

var more = node.nodes && node.nodes.length;

var prefix_ = prefix + (last ? ' ' : chr('│')) + ' ';

return prefix

+ (last ? chr('└') : chr('├')) + chr('─')

+ (more ? chr('┬') : chr('─')) + ' '

+ archy(node, prefix_, opts).slice(prefix.length + 2)

;

}).join('')

;

};

https://github.com/substack/node-archy

https://github.com/substack/node-archy

So what?

2000 - 2010: The golden era of the software monolith

2010+: SOA all the things!

2014+: “The great unbundling”


Modularity in the enterprise

• Monoliths represent a huge business risk

• Optimise for “throw-away-ability”

• Business and code agility

• Webscale!

This is Node’s natural home


The Future of Node

• npm focused on module-driven development

• Service-focused infrastructure libraries

• Continued evolution of versioning conventions

• Continued discussion about transitive dependency

problems

• Module-driven development for the browser

• ES6 Modules?


Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

Eh?

• Node's core contains mostly essentials

• Constant debate about what gets in

• npm & Node's modularity enables a vibrant

ecosystem

• Experimentation pushed to the edges


So what?

"The standard library is where modules go to die." —

Kenneth Reitz


So what?

Not stuck with as many "bad parts" forever

• Domains?

• Streams2?

• <insert pet-hate Node-core feature here>


So what?

Experimentation!

• Build tools: Grunt, Gulp, etc.

• Browser tools: Browserify, WebPack

• Level*

• StackGL, etc.

• Desktop application tooling: NW.js, Atom

• IoT & robotics

• Languages & language features


The Future of Node

• Core fiercely guarded

• Difficulty adapting core to new language features

• Tension with V8’s expansion

• StrongMode, SoundScript

• Intl

• Improved support for userland extension (NAN!)


New Models In Open Source

Eh?

• Node was born in the GitHub era but is pushing at the

boundaries

• Many projects adopting liberal governance

• io.js, request, level*: OPEN Open Source

• Contributors are embraced as owners

• Small modules make this easier


So what?

• The Node community is more embracing and

cohesive

• Learning and up-skilling is accelerated via

responsibility


The Future of Node

Open governance from core up


The Future of Node

Node is pioneering new governance models for next

generation Open Source


The Future of Node.js

io.js

The Future of Node.js

‘Node’ is moving faster than ‘Node.js’

https://twitter.com/seldo/status/580536539047940096

https://twitter.com/seldo/status/580536539047940096

0

100

200

300

400

Core commits per month, 2009 to today

joyent/node

0

100

200

300

400

Core commits per month, 2009 to today

joyent/node iojs/io.js

The Future of Node: Node.js + io.js?

• Open governance

• Rapid iteration

• New relationships with the V8 team

• Embracing the future

io.js

• Debuggability & insight

• Better streams

• ES6 and beyond:

• Track stable V8 releases

• Focus on async APIs

• Better number support!

• New server platforms: ARM64

io.js Mapping the Future of Node

An LTS Strategy

• Backed by companies like NodeSource

• Pick-a-branch and support

• Likely similar to Ubuntu LTS model

io.js Stability & Support

The Future of Node: Beaut

March 31, 2015

@rvagg

Thank You.

the future of node - @rvagg - nodeconf christchurch 2015

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