
Node.js for Embedded Systems - greenyouse
http://embeddednodejs.com/
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manigandham
Neat stuff. What's all the hate is about. Not every embedded system is running
real-time sensitive industrial machinery or medical equipment.

Many things like general consumer electronics can run fine with Node. The
runtime is incredibly well-tested at this point, JS is easily learned and
scriptable for extensibility, the single-threaded nature is easy to work with
and fast enough, and managed memory makes it easy to crash and recover from
failures.

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partycoder
The choice of node.js means putting developer convenience in front of
everything else.

The end user does not care about developer convenience, cares about a working
product that is reliable.

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manigandham
Is it though? I'd prefer many other languages that are more convenient to code
in that dealing with the quirks of JS, but I don't see why Node must be
unreliable either. I think for simple devices this works just fine.

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chrisbennet
A friend of mine did some sort of medical device for diabetes or transfusion
(or something like that) using node.js a few years back.

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priansh
"Saying that JavaScript is good because it works on all platforms is like
saying anal sex is good because it works on all genders."

It's great for use on the web, just please keep it there!

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dna_polymerase
Some men just want to watch the world burn.

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crimsonalucard
I hear they use embedded systems on airplanes, rockets and space vehicles.
Javascript on embedded systems makes it so that your average front end
developer can now make the software that controls auto pilot or Nuclear Power
Plants!

Javascript is taking over!

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sct202
Some embedded systems are maintained or coded with GUI's like RSLinx (it's all
visual), so using JS instead might be a step up in some scenarios.

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crimsonalucard
I think GUIs and touch screens are the future of all embedded systems. No more
buttons. Imagine the cockpit of a boeing 747 with all levers buttons and knobs
removed. Just a giant LCD touch screen GUI coded by a bootcamp graduate in
React + redux.

The plane would be more useable by the pilot as touchscreens are more
versatile than old fashioned buttons. Also you would be more safe because if a
lever or button fails on a flight you are pretty much screwed but if a
touchscreen fails you can just reboot the touchscreen and you're good.

