

Ask HN: Node.js question from a non-technical person - markhall

I know some people may take issue with my question, but I find it necessary to ask anyway: As a non-technical entrepreneur, how could I best audit my web app to see if a transition from RoR to Node.js makes sense? My web app currently is programmed in RoR and many of the benefits that I have heard about Node/js would be greatly beneficial for the purposes of my site. The web app uses multiple APIs (including Fb, Twitter, and other non-social sites) and needs to analyze and present data quickly for a user. With RoR, I find lag in loading which greatly affects the UX of my site. What is the best process that I could take to determine if a transition to Node is in the best interest of my app's performance? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
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SamReidHughes
It doesn't make sense. You can solve performance problems without rewriting
the whole thing.

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squiggly101
Profile your existing app and find out what is making it slow.

When you fully understand how your existing app performs (and why it performs)
you may start making informed decisions.

Profiling is a highly technical art that is beyond even most competent
programmers. You need a good systems engineer who is proficient with the tools
used to examine application performance on your system, and understands the
different technology stacks involved (networking, disk I/O,
cpu/threading/scheduling, virtual memory etc.). If you can reproduce the
problem, they should be able to pinpoint the cause.

Also, you may want to read up on Node.js and understand what benefits it
brings to the table - it is not a silver bullet that solves all Web
application problems.

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markhall
Great advice squiggly101. Thanks for the solid and honest feedback.

