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Tim Caswell on Learning Node.js

Klint Finley | January 27th
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Node.js logo As I’ve written before, Node.js is an increasingly popular platform in the DevOps community. It’s being used for monitoring in Dtrace and Nodefly, for deployment in Dreadnot and for gathering statistics with Statsd.

But if you want Node.js talent, you’re probably going to have to grow your own, or learn it yourself. Experienced Node.js developers are thin on the ground.

So how exactly can you get started learning Node.js? There are quite a few resources online, including the collectively edited e-book Mastering Node and the draft version of Tom Hughes-Croucher’s Up and Running with Node.js. Then there’s Eloquent JavaScript, an excellent interactive e-book on computer science and JavaScript (it’s also available in print).

HowTo Node webmaster and Cloud9 IDE community manager Tim Caswell has a passion for expanding the Node.js community and shared a few thoughts on learning Node.js on our show theCube at NodeSummit:


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In addition to the resources listed above, Caswell says it’s important to learn what Node.js is good for and what it isn’t. He says it’s important to learn JavaScript as well as you can, but you don’t necessarily need to know JavaScript before you start learning Node.js. In particular you want to have a firm understanding of closures, call backs, the run to completion model and the way that single threaded event loops work. “Once your team has a good firm grip of these parts of JavaScript you can get a lot further,” he says.

Caswell cites a line from Eloquent JavaScript as very important to working with Node.js: “The art of programming is the skill of controlling complexity.”

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About Klint Finley

Klint Finley is a Senior Writer at SiliconAngle. His specialties include IT services, enterprise technology and software development. Prior to SiliconAngle he was a writer for ReadWriteWeb. He's also a former IT practicioner, and has written about technology for over a decade. He can be contacted at angle@klintfinley.com.
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  1. 5 Content Management or Blog Publishing Systems Written in Node.js | SiliconANGLE says:
    February 3, 2012 at 11:01 am

    [...] It takes a folder full of markdown formatted text files from git and renders them as HTML. In my interview with him on theCube, Caswell explained that he didn’t originally plan for anyone else to use Wheat, but he put it [...]

  2. 5 Content Management or Blog Publishing Systems Written in Node.js | Books & Publishing News says:
    February 3, 2012 at 11:57 am

    [...] It takes a folder full of markdown formatted text files from git and renders them as HTML. In my interview with him on theCube, Caswell explained that he didn’t originally plan for anyone else to use Wheat, but he put it in [...]

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