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.

Good News Everyone! New and better instructions!

Thanks to the recent handover of Node from Joyent to the Linux Foundation, installing Node onto Raspberry Pi is no longer the neglected hell that it once was. In fact, the instructions are so easy.

At the time of this latest update (10/8/2015), the latest stable version of Node is v4.1.2

For Raspberry Pi 2, you are using the newer ARMv7l architecture, so follow these instructions.

cd ~/Software
curl -SL https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-v4.1.2-linux-armv7l.tar.xz | tar xzv
cd node-v4.1.2-linux-armv7l/
sudo cp -R * /usr/local

For Raspberry Pi B+ users, you are using the older ARMv6l architecture, so follow these instructions.

cd ~/Software
curl -SL https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/node-v4.1.2-linux-armv6l.tar.xz | tar xzv
cd node-v4.1.2-linux-armv6l/
sudo cp -R * /usr/local

That's it! No more meddling with the dot files, just download, change directories, copy everything, and RUN!

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
• https://nodejs.org/dist/latest/
• http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-NodeJS-WebSockets-LED-Controller-for-Raspberr/