
Node.js v0.6.0 is released - jasondavies
http://blog.nodejs.org/2011/11/05/node-v0-6-0/
======
lemonad
I found it a bit odd that writes for linux went down from 22MB/s to 17MB/s
when Windows writes went way up from 13MB/s to 34MB/s. This at the same time
as read performance went up to 27MB/s for both systems.

Edit: Seems like it's a regression that will likely be fixed for 0.6.1.

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khookie
I hope it's well optimized for fibonacci algorithms now.

~~~
ftwinnovations
Not to worry! Until we can get the _desperately_ needed native Fibonacci
support (lest the haters hate), there is always node-fib:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3067403>

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markbao
Am I the only one that thinks that Windows support was not really worth the
time? Sure, you get to support a huge chunk of the OS market, but what are the
real implications of Node running natively on Windows?

~~~
ConstantineXVI
Microsoft funded the work. My guess is since they're pushing for JS client-
side apps now with WinRT; they funded node on Windows so that JS developers
can run their server-side code on Windows instead of being tempted to fire up
a *nix server instead.

(AFAIK, MS doesn't have any server-side JS tooling similar to node at the
moment. Very good chance that I'm wrong, though.)

~~~
hammerdr
Microsoft has JScript.NET (and has for a while now).

<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms974588.aspx>

I haven't seen it used anywhere as a server side application, though.

~~~
duncans
JScript.NET was dropped for .NET 4.0; it has always been a bit of a curiosity
though. I think it was there because "classic" ASP had support for doing
server-side scripting in JScript, so somebody thought ASP.NET needed to
support it also. Thankfully, there are a few alternative JavaScript
implementations on .NET such as IronJS.

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grannyg00se
"Native Windows support using I/O Completion Ports for sockets."

"Integrated load balancing over multiple processes."

These two improvements are just the nudge I needed to start tinkering with
Node. I've been following along and reading about node almost daily but native
windows support and integrated focus on multiple processes make a big
difference to me. I can no longer sit on the sidelines.

Thanks for picking me up and shoving me onto the field!

~~~
ebiester
While I agree what windows support is nice, I have found running a virtual
machine running Linux much easier even when there is official Win support.
It's no different running an SSH terminal to a local system than a remote one,
after all.

~~~
grannyg00se
That is exactly what I was considering for my home use. But unfortunately many
businesses will deal only with windows servers, vm or not. This brings node
one step closer into the realm of plausible platform for those cases.

~~~
jebblue
Can you provide a couple of examples?

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Swizec
Direct link to a list of changes you have to make to your codebases:
[https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/API-changes-
between-v0.4...](https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/API-changes-
between-v0.4-and-v0.6)

Question: Since this doesn't look that complex, is anyone working on an
automagical translator from 0.4 to 0.6 that people could use?

~~~
joelhaasnoot
I think lots of the pain is going to be in the vast collection of third party
(npm) modules that need to be updated. Will take a bit before all module
authors are up to date.

~~~
DevX101
It'd be nice to have a list of modules affected by the change. I probably
won't update until I know what it'll do to my existing system.

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moomin
Next for windows developers is trying to get npm to work. The sheer popularity
of unix tooling in the build process means that using node libraries is likely
to remain a challenge.

~~~
jinushaun
While it's true that a lot of Node libraries assume *nix and make system
calls, a surprising number of libraries are written in pure Node. Just clone
the library from GitHub and put it in the node_modules directory and you're
good to go for a number of popular libraries.

I've played around with Node in Windows and Node without NPM is seriously
gimped.

~~~
aquarius070287
Well, ryppi.py is a python script which works like npm. Once you are done with
it you can install any of the libraries by using the following command.

    
    
                 python ryppi.py install socket.io express

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Ecio78
uhm, according to their benchmark io.js write performance dropped from 21mb/s
to 17mb/s in linux but rose from 12mb/s to 33mb/s in windows. So it seems that
windows node implementation is now twice faster (for I/O) than linux one..are
they only focusing on windows platform?

~~~
bnoordhuis
That's a regression we'll probably have fixed in 0.6.1.

Note that I/O read performance is up 35%, from 19.7 mb/s in 0.4 to 26.6 mb/s
in 0.6.

~~~
newman314
Any numbers for node on ARM? I was told that recently v8 releases have had
significant performance regressions for ARM devices by a JS dev at a meetup.

~~~
mraleph
Can you give more information about this?

If you know that JS dev personally please ask him to file the bug
(<http://code.google.com/p/v8/issues/entry>) or send any information he has
about regressions to v8-users mailing list.

I don't think there were any bugs opened recently about perf regressions on
ARM devices.

Thanks.

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elii
Don't use it if you rely on npm. It doesn't work yet.

~~~
Kudos
Or just install npm manually. Clone it, edit one line to bypass a check, `make
install`. Remember, if it's 0.5.x compatible, it's probably 0.6.0 compatible.

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siculars
Node Cluster? <http://nodejs.org/docs/latest/api/cluster.html>

Is it me or does this look like the early makings of an erlangish otp, eh?

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firefoxman1
Wow the balancing through clusters looks awesome! With this addition, does
anyone know if you need to start node with --balance anymore?

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dmmalam
Would be nice to see a need a list of modules that are ready for 0.6. I rekon
our moderately complex app we will be on 0.4.x for a while

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disordinary
Wouldn't run node on windows in production, but it makes it a heck of alot
easier for dev work.

