Level: Introductory

Ted Neward

Director, Developer Relations

Smartsheet.com

Join Ted as he reviews everything you need to know about Node.js

The circle, as they say, is now complete. JavaScript, what was once a maligned language due to its seeming relationship with Java yet baffling idiosyncracies making it impossible to program, has now become an "elegant" language whose "misunderstood" behavior within the browser was all just.. er… a misunderstanding. Now, today, developers are building elegant programs running on elegant servers, using this elegant thing called Node.js, running JavaScript on the server. Because, you know, it's not (*cough* ASP) like anybody (*cough* LiveScript) ever did that before…. In this session, we'll go over some of the "elegance" that this platform brings, as well as some of the not-so-elegant parts, including a recap of the language (because nobody wants to admit that they really didn't ever learn JavaScript), the packaging system used in Node apps (npm), and some of the popular server-side libraries that Node uses (which change on a weekly basis). If you've never used Node, but wondered why everybody was so excited about JavaScript on the server, come on by and have a few myths dispelled.