Way back in March of 2010, I gave a lightning talk titled “Full-Stack JavaScript” at the NoSQL Boston conference. Back then, and even more so now, I knew that using JavaScript for every layer of the application stack was not only possible, but was a great way to reduce software complexity.
When each layer of your stack speaks JavaScript, you sidestep impedance mismatches and facilitate code reuse. Node.js is an important piece of the puzzle, filling the middle space between your front-end user-facing code and your data-storage layer.
The Right Way in this book’s title refers to both the process of learning Node.js and the practice of writing Node.js code.
As with any growing technology, there are plenty of resources available for learning Node.js. Unfortunately, many of those resources are narrowly focused on serving up web resources.
The web is great, but it’s not enough, and it’s not the whole story of Node.js. Node.js is about more than just serving web apps, and this book treats it that way.
Node.js 8 the Right Way teaches you the concepts you’ll need to be an effective Node.js programmer, no matter what kinds of programs you need to write.
One thing I love about JavaScript is that there are seven ways to do anything. There’s breathing room, where developers can explore and experiment and find better approaches to everything.
The community of Node.js developers, the conventions in Node.js development, and even the semantics of the JavaScript language itself are all rapidly evolving. With eyes to the near future, the code examples and recommendations in this book reflect current best practices and standards.