Version
You can check which version of Node.js you are using by running the command
`node -v`
in your terminal.
This will output the version number of the Node.js installation on your system.
About Node.JS
Node JS is a multiplatform runtime. As the name itself suggests, it is almost entirely based on the popular
programming language, Javascript.
Node JS has a very particular focus and useful applications that we will further discuss in this article. It is
sponsored by the Joyent company,
and it is developed mostly by the brilliant programmer Ryan Lienhart Dahl. Its first release came out in the late
2000s.
A very peculiar feature of Node JS that needs to be addressed beforehand is that the code runs on the server-side,
which is very important as you will be able to infer from the below paragraphs.
So, what is the main use of Node JS that we have been alluding to? It is, of course, the development of servers and
server applications.
This is why it is so important that the code runs on the server-side. Node JS offers the scalability and the
environment required to make
very fast servers to run on the web, this can be anything from eCommerce stores and company sites to social media
where everything
must respond quickly and efficiently. This means that Node JS and inherently Javascript compete directly with PHP
and PHP-based
frameworks to develop web applications and web servers.
Why choose Node JS over PHP then? This is because of some big advantages and interesting features that Node JS
offers, explained here below.
According to the documentation of Node JS itself, the model is event-driven which makes it highly efficient and
lightweight.
This makes the functionality of Node JS be specifically tailored and supportive of applications that generate and
call for big amounts of data in real-time.
Node JS also has strong capabilities of helping develop applications that run in a distributed manner. Finally, the
fact that Node JS runs on OSX,
Microsoft, and most Linux/GNU distributions makes it really good for portability in the development phase.
Releases
Node JS has launched relatively a short time ago, its first stable release came out on the 27th of May of 2009,
with all of the features that made it famous and useful for programmers and server developers around the world.
The last stable release was made available to the general public on the 23rd of February of the present 2021 year.
Because this is open-source software, you can expect a very active community online that publishes new ideas and
maybe even bug
fixes for things that may not have been addressed in the regular upgrades.