A brief analysis of how front-end developers can learn the Node language?

This article compiles the notes I took when I first learned Node.js to give readers who are interested in the Node.js language a concise introduction to what Node.js is and how to do it. Learn the language.

1. What is Node.js?

Node.js was developed by Ryan Dahl in 2009 to solve the problem of high concurrency of Web servers JavaScript runtime based on the Chrome V8 engine Time environment.

From this definition, we can see the three key features of Node.js:

• The purpose is to solve the problem of high concurrency of Web servers ;

• ##The foundation is

  Chrome V8 engine;

• The essence is

  a JavaScript runtime environment ;

Therefore, to understand what Node.js is, we must first understand the above three key characteristics. [Related tutorial recommendations:

nodejs video tutorial

, Programming teaching]

1.1 Three key features of Node.js

1.1.1 In order to solve the problem of high concurrency of Web servers

Before designing Node, Ryan Dahl had been committed to solving the performance problems caused by the high concurrency of Web servers. Based on work experience, he believed that performance problems The bottleneck lies in blocking I/O operations. Coinciding with the launch of Chrome's high-performance V8 engine, Ryan Dahl believes that JavaScript's natural asynchronous, event delegation mechanism and the JavaScript language's lack of historical baggage on the server are very suitable for improving large-scale applications through

asynchronous process control

Distributed system performance. So, Node.js came into being. Although Node.js has been used in a variety of scenarios. But we should always realize that understanding the

Asynchronous Process Control Principle

of Node.js is to master the core of Node.js.

1.1.2 Chrome V8 Engine

The Chrome core is based on WebKit and is divided into the following two engines:

Rendering engine: Web Core ;

• JavaScript interpretation engine: JavaScript Core;
• Because Google was not satisfied with the performance of JavaScript Core, it independently developed a V8 engine with better performance to replace it.

As a JavaScript interpretation engine, the main functions of the V8 engine are:

Interpretation and compilation of JavaScript;
Heap management ;
Handle memory garbage collection;
Handle memory allocation;
…
It can be said that the V8 engine provides a high-performance JavaScript execution environment, so JavaScript can have sufficient confidence to run on various platforms (browser, server, desktop).

1.1.3 JavaScript runtime environment

Node.js is neither a language (JavaScript) nor a framework (React, Koa), but a

JavaScript Runtime Environment

. So what is

JavaScript runtime environment

? As the name suggests, it is an environment that can run JavaScript. So what does environment here refer to? It mainly includes the following two aspects:

provides explanation and the underlying ability to compile JavaScript;
provides a series of interfaces to enable developers to The underlying capabilities of the system (such as network, file reading and writing, etc.) can be called through JavaScript;
The former is provided by the Chrome V8 engine, while the latter is written by a bottom layer C, C The high-performance event-driven asynchronous I/O library provided by **

libuv

**.

1.2 libuv

libuv

is a cross-platform, event-driven asynchronous I/O library that provides the CPU and operating system for Node level functions. We know that different operating systems schedule hardware in different ways, and CPU instruction sets also vary. libuv smoothes this difference and exposes a unified system operation interface to users through a module named Node Bindings. So now we can say that Node actually consists of two parts: Chrome V8 engine and

libuv

. These two layers are hidden under Node Bindings, and users program against Node Bindings. At this point, you should understand what Node.js is. It is a cross-platform JavaScript executable environment. In this environment, you can use JavaScript to fully mobilize the capabilities of the operating system and do whatever you want!

2. The philosophy of Node.js

To fully understand Node.js, in addition to the

asynchronous process control principle

mentioned above , we also need to understand the design philosophy demonstrated by Node.js from its inception to development, which will help us prefer the Node.js ecosystem.

I think Node.js has the following three major characteristics:

• Open;

• Focus;

• Simple;

Let me explain them separately.

2.1 Open

Node.js At the beginning of the design, we insisted on making the core library small enough to give full play to the creativity of the community and allow everyone to build large-scale The system is built as much as possible from the community, so each component can be quickly tried and tested and iterated. I have to say that although this approach seems a bit lazy, it turns out that this trust in the community and open attitude have reaped huge rewards: Node.js has the most active and largest community and package management platform in the world. npm.

2.2 Focus

Developers in the Node community have always maintained a tacit understanding that the functions of the package should be narrow enough. It is best to only do one thing well at a time. And expose a single interface to the outside world. In this way, package development, design, and testing will become simpler, and the package will be more reliable. This kind of focus also reflects the humility and efficiency of the developers.

2.3 Simplicity

Node packages usually only expose a single module and interface, and inherit the simplicity characteristics of JavaScript and use simple data structures. This makes Node packages easy to read and understand.

3. How do front-end developers learn Node.js?

For front-end developers who have never been involved in server-side development, the following points are the knowledge that must be supplemented in the process of learning Node:

• Yes JavaScript language features (especially ESNext), in-depth understanding of syntax;

• database knowledge and data table design capabilities;

• system architecture capabilities;

Learning Node.js can be divided into two parts:

• Learning the use of the core library of Node.js;

• Learn the use of related Web frameworks;

In the entire learning process, it is recommended to adopt the following four steps of learning:

• Read the official documentation;

• Write a Demo and be familiar with the grammar verification ideas;

• Continuously ask yourself questions during this process, and go deeper Get answers through research;

• Through external output, share the results to deepen your impression;

4. Summary

Node.js is now a technology that every front-end developer must master. It opens up the underlying capabilities at the operating system level to front-end developers through libuv, allowing developers to fully use the computing power and functions of the computer. . And made possible the idea of ​​solving all the problems of web application development in one language. I hope that through the introduction of this article, you can become curious about Node.js, and I wish you a happy exploration in the future.

For more node-related knowledge, please visit: nodejs tutorial!

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