A look at what the future holds for Node by understanding what Node has become and what the "Essence of Node" is

1. March 31, 2015
by @rvagg
The Future of Node

2. The Essence of Node

3. 1. JavaScript on the server
2. Asynchronous programming
3. Module-driven development
4. Small core, vibrant
ecosystem
5. New models in Open Source
The Essence of Node

4. JavaScript on the Server

5. So what?
• “Developer joy”
• Productive
• Approachable, sans quirks
• Massive pool of developers
JavaScript on the Server

7. The Future of Node
• JavaScript is not going away (Dart anyone?)
• Node adoption makes it “the language of the web”
• Helping to drive the future of JavaScript
• Challenges for learning as language complexity
increases
JavaScript on the Server

8. Asynchronous Programming

9. Eh?
• Alternative programmer mindset
• API focus on callbacks, events and streams
• Limits to Sync()-ability, generally shunned
• Single-threaded!
Asynchronous Programming

10. So what?
High-performance paradigm—performance comes free
Asynchronous Programming

11. System.out.println("Reading file...");
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("in.txt"));
try {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String line;
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null)
sb.append(line + "n");
System.out.print(sb.toString());
} finally {
br.close();
}
System.out.println("Finished reading file!");

12. So what?
• Scalable:
• Handle huge amounts of I/O with single process
• Single-threaded encourages scalable design
patterns
• Reflective of how the world really works
Asynchronous Programming

13. The Future of Node
An ongoing battle over programming paradigms
• Promises
• Generator functions for async
• async await (ES7)
The human instinct is to make everything serial!
Asynchronous Programming

14. Module-driven Development

15. Eh?
• npm
• Module system solves most dependency-hell
problems
• Simplicity!
Module-driven Development

16. So what?
The holy-grail of decoupled and reusable coding
Module-driven Development

17. So what?
Small chunks of code:
• Focused concerns
• Testable
• Grokkable
• Documentable
• Sharable
• Ease of collaboration
Module-driven Development

18. module.exports = function archy (obj, prefix, opts) {
if (prefix === undefined) prefix = '';
if (!opts) opts = {};
var chr = function (s) {
var chars = {
'│' : '|',
'└' : '`',
'├' : '+',
'─' : '-',
'┬' : '-'
};
return opts.unicode === false ? chars[s] : s;
};
if (typeof obj === 'string') obj = { label : obj };
var nodes = obj.nodes || [];
var lines = (obj.label || '').split('n');
var splitter = 'n' + prefix + (nodes.length ? chr('│') : ' ') + ' ';
return prefix
+ lines.join(splitter) + 'n'
+ nodes.map(function (node, ix) {
var last = ix === nodes.length - 1;
var more = node.nodes && node.nodes.length;
var prefix_ = prefix + (last ? ' ' : chr('│')) + ' ';
return prefix
+ (last ? chr('└') : chr('├')) + chr('─')
+ (more ? chr('┬') : chr('─')) + ' '
+ archy(node, prefix_, opts).slice(prefix.length + 2)
;
}).join('')
;
};
https://github.com/substack/node-archy

19. So what?
2000 - 2010: The golden era of the software monolith
2010+: SOA all the things!
2014+: “The great unbundling”
Module-driven Development

20. Modularity in the enterprise
• Monoliths represent a huge business risk
• Optimise for “throw-away-ability”
• Business and code agility
• Webscale!
This is Node’s natural home
Module-driven Development

21. The Future of Node
• npm focused on module-driven development
• Service-focused infrastructure libraries
• Continued evolution of versioning conventions
• Continued discussion about transitive dependency
problems
• Module-driven development for the browser
• ES6 Modules?
Module-driven Development

22. Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

23. Eh?
• Node's core contains mostly essentials
• Constant debate about what gets in
• npm & Node's modularity enables a vibrant
ecosystem
• Experimentation pushed to the edges
Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

24. So what?
"The standard library is where modules go to die." —
Kenneth Reitz
Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

25. So what?
Not stuck with as many "bad parts" forever
• Domains?
• Streams2?
• <insert pet-hate Node-core feature here>
Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

26. So what?
Experimentation!
• Build tools: Grunt, Gulp, etc.
• Browser tools: Browserify, WebPack
• Level*
• StackGL, etc.
• Desktop application tooling: NW.js, Atom
• IoT & robotics
• Languages & language features
Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

27. The Future of Node
• Core fiercely guarded
• Difficulty adapting core to new language features
• Tension with V8’s expansion
• StrongMode, SoundScript
• Intl
• Improved support for userland extension (NAN!)
Small Core, Vibrant Ecosystem

28. New Models In Open Source

29. Eh?
• Node was born in the GitHub era but is pushing at the
boundaries
• Many projects adopting liberal governance
• io.js, request, level*: OPEN Open Source
• Contributors are embraced as owners
• Small modules make this easier
New Models In Open Source

30. So what?
• The Node community is more embracing and
cohesive
• Learning and up-skilling is accelerated via
responsibility
New Models In Open Source

31. The Future of Node
Open governance from core up
New Models In Open Source

32. The Future of Node
Node is pioneering new governance models for next
generation Open Source
New Models In Open Source

33. The Future of Node.js
io.js

34. The Future of Node.js
‘Node’ is moving faster than ‘Node.js’

35. https://twitter.com/seldo/status/580536539047940096

36. 0
100
200
300
400
Core commits per month, 2009 to today
joyent/node

37. 0
100
200
300
400
Core commits per month, 2009 to today
joyent/node iojs/io.js

38. The Future of Node: Node.js + io.js?

39. • Open governance
• Rapid iteration
• New relationships with the V8 team
• Embracing the future
io.js

40. • Debuggability & insight
• Better streams
• ES6 and beyond:
• Track stable V8 releases
• Focus on async APIs
• Better number support!
• New server platforms: ARM64
io.js Mapping the Future of Node

41. An LTS Strategy
• Backed by companies like NodeSource
• Pick-a-branch and support
• Likely similar to Ubuntu LTS model
io.js Stability & Support

42. The Future of Node: Beaut

43. March 31, 2015
@rvagg
Thank You.