Node is a scripted interface to your machine's operating system. It gives you basic primitives in a really efficient non-blocking architecture so that you have full control how your program is executed.
This architecture is ideal for problems where there is lots of concurrent I/O going on and not too much CPU intensive calculation. A webserver is a good example of this since most of the work is talking to databases, files on disk, and web browsers. Being JavaScript makes it a natural fit to web applications as well since it's the same language used *in* the browser. Node can easily create an http server inside itself, it can also create tcp servers, clients, terminal-based interaction, etc.. If the problem involves lots of communication, then node is probably a good fit. On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 at 10:17 PM, jshrek <j...@forerunnertv.com> wrote: > ok, this is really a serious question... just trying to wrap my head > around exactly what node.js is and what it is not. > > So from what I gather, node.js is a web server written in JavaScript? > Am I on track so far? > > So is this something I would use as an alternative to say PHP? > > And does it run on an apache server or is it s replacement for apache? > > Thanks > > -- > Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ > Posting guidelines: > https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "nodejs" group. > To post to this group, send email to nodejs@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > nodejs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en > -- Job Board: http://jobs.nodejs.org/ Posting guidelines: https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/Mailing-List-Posting-Guidelines You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "nodejs" group. To post to this group, send email to nodejs@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nodejs+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs?hl=en?hl=en
