Node

Node.js, or just Node, is an open source, cross-platform runtime environment for server-side and networking applications. Node.js applications are written in JavaScript, and can be run within the Node.js runtime on most operating systems.

Installing Node

Node requires GCC, Make, and Python. If you are using Linux, you should already have these things.

cd ~/Software
curl -SL http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.36/node-v0.10.36.tar.gz | tar xzv
cd node-v0.10.36/
./configure --without-snapshot && make && sudo make install && sudo  ldconfig

The --without-snapshot option is required so that node does not Segmentation Fault when it runs.

I would also not recomment putting it anywhere else but in the /usr or /usr/local directories. I tried putting it in /opt but the system couldn't find node. It would probably require some modification of the $PATH option.

TODO: show code examples here

One more thing. To leave the node shell, press CTRL+D

So what is Node?

Node is basically JavaScript which you can run like any other programming lanugage that uses a REPL shell. It's actually written in C++ but is programmed to behave like JavaScript. Basically, if you have ever used the text console inside of Google Chrome to debug a webpage or to tinker with JavaScript elements, that's pretty much what Node does, only without the browser.

TODO: Show some code examples.

NPM

TODO: Explain what NPM does.

Popular NPM packages

TODO: Explain what NPM packages are, which ones are popular and why they are so.

See Also

• JavaScript
• JSON
• Webkit
• CoffeeScript
• [Google Chrome](Google Chrome)
• Ruby
• OCAML
• Haxe
• Less
• REPL

External Links

• http://nodejs.org/
• https://github.com/joyent/node
• https://www.npmjs.com/
• http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=6548 - Fixing the Segmentation Fault bug for Node on ODroid