NodeJS: JavaScript as a Web Server Language

Concurrent, non-blocking, JIT, VM for running JavaScript as a scripting language on a server. The non-blocking event based IO on one thread drastically reduces memory overhead which increases speed allowing massive throughput. A simple "hello world" web server on NodeJS has been nearly 6 times faster than Apache on the same hardware... and that's comparing a script, with compiled code.

Google Coder Web Development uses a Raspberry Pi as the web server, and development environment.

Also: On the Microsoft IIS platform: Javascript in ASP, Jscript in ASP is faster than VBScript

See also:

• https://medium.com/@smashingmag/keeping-node-js-fast-tools-techniques-and-tips-for-making-high-performance-node-js-servers-8cfcb55e3d7 Diagnosing slowdowns in Node.JS James Newton of MassMind replies:

  npm install -g autocannon
  npm install -g clinic
  

  Autocannon generates sample requests. e.g. autocannon -c100 url will generate 100 concurrent random requests. Clinic clinic doctor --on-port='autocannon -c100 url' -- node index.js opens an HTML file with all sorts of profile data. clinic flame --on-port='autocannon -c100 url' -- node index.js generates a flame graph, which you can drill down into in order to find the slow parts of a script.+

  +

• http://nodejs.org/ or better: https://nodejs.org/en/about/
  • http://blog.mixu.net/2011/02/01/understanding-the-node-js-event-loop/ Why it's faster.

  Note that this does NOT mean NodeJS can't take advantage of multiple processors or multi-threaded work:

  • http://blog.carbonfive.com/2014/02/28/taking-advantage-of-multi-processor-environments-in-node-js/ For example, load balancing a NodeJS web server over multiple cores takes an entire 7 lines of code. ,o)

    Use cluster when you want to parallelize the SAME flow of execution and server listening.
    http://nodejs.org/api/cluster.html

    Use child_process when you want DIFFERENT flows of execution working together
    http://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html
    and take advantage of built in Inter-Process Communication to pass objects between the processes.
    http://nodejs.org/api/child_process.html#child_process_child_process_fork_modulepath_args_options
    

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• https://cloud.google.com/functions/docs/ Alpha release of a system that connects events to functions written in NodeJS. Like ROS, Cloud Functions can be triggered by subscription to topics from the Google Cloud such as https requests (web server), or when a file is uploaded, or modified. (back end)
   
• https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/web#deploying Google App Script is Javascript (Rhino engine, written in Java) and can easily be used to respond to events in the Google Drive space such as Docs, Forms, Sheets, etc...  and gmail, calendar, maps, groups, sites, etc... as well as to http requests (web apps). Most google services, e.g. translation, prediction, shopping, youtube, etc... are also accessible. Note: Cloud logging may provide a way to connect App Scripts to Google Functions. Problems: No output is allowed directly from a web app... it is always re-packaged as an iframe so it is sandboxed or text can be returned by a re-direct to another page.
   
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_server-side_JavaScript_solutions Also ran.

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