
October Brings Node.js 10.x to LTS and Node.js 11 to Current - truth_seeker
https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-lts-and-node-js-11-to-current-ae19f8f12b51
======
Klathmon
>This version also comes with the experimental release of Node-ChakraCore

Wow, it looks like Microsoft is really truly supporting this!

I have to be honest, when I first saw they were trying to run their engine in
node, I thought it would be like all the attempts before. Half-assed, or done
once then not kept up to date.

But not only are they still maintaining it, but they are still improving it!

I really hope that node-chakracore gains more adoption, even if only as an
alternative from the v8 monoculture that we have. And that being said, I'm
going off now to put my money where my mouth is and install it locally and see
how much I can run with it.

~~~
hajile
With Node's growing popularity, could you expect any different? Google and
Apple compete on the cloud and node is very important there. By getting
involved in the process, Microsoft keeps themselves from being at the mercy of
Google's choices. Apple doesn't because Cloud is a much smaller part of their
business (though native node on iOS and OSX would be very nice to have).
Mozilla was also working on that, but I guess it's even less of a priority for
them since they appeared to drop everything

~~~
Klathmon
But that's my point, is that I expected MS to stand it up, get it like 50-80%
working, then drop it. It's happened a lot of times:

* nashorn - started off as a reimplementation of node APIs in java's JS engine, died around 2015 for this purpose

* rhinodo - same as the above, never really got anywhere. no change since 2015

* spidernode - mozilla's take on it, looks like most development started and ended 2 years ago, with only superficial changes since then.

* node-jsc - still being developed, but it's only a few months old, and still isn't even fully caught up to node's version 8 APIs.

The ground is littered with failed attempts at this, and I think that is
because it's always a LOT more work than people think, and the work doesn't
just stop when you get it running, it keeps going. And you either need a crazy
amount of dedication, a wide audience, or a lot of funding to keep it up. And
it's hard to stay dedicated without users, it's hard to get an audience when
stuff doesn't work, and it's hard to keep funding when the work isn't
providing any immediate benefit for your company.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to dissuade or put down developers working on
those projects, I think it's an extremely awesome thing that's well above my
ability and I hope that they continue so one day we can see competition in the
server-side-javascript space similar to how we see competition in the browser
space to really drive innovation. But this stuff isn't easy, and it is really
nice to see a company say they are going to build this, then actually put
their money down and fund it. And on top of that they are adding new features,
new developer niceties, and actually working to make it a viable option, not
just a checkbox and a pat on the back for giving it a good try.

------
timjulien
This other post contains the performance claims:
[https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-
lt...](https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-lts-and-node-
js-11-to-current-ae19f8f12b51)

------
jcolella
If you are using async/await, you also enjoy a performance boost.

[https://auth0.com/blog/nodejs-10-new-changes-
deprecations/](https://auth0.com/blog/nodejs-10-new-changes-deprecations/)

------
jchw
I am really disappointed with the direction ES module support has taken in
Node.JS. It isn't like it was done poorly, in fact I think it was done quite
thoughtfully... And yet it feels like it hurts ES modules very hard.
Interoperabilility is just too poor. I don't even bother trying to use it. I'd
rather continue using the polyfills.

------
z3t4
The native modules has been my biggest pain point, that modules stop working
after a major release. Glad they are working on it! I try to use "pure" JS
modules as much as possible, but it's not always possible when working with
low level code, hardware, or OS integration.

------
peterkelly
Does anyone have a summary of the major changes from version 8? The changes
are split up into lots of small increments in the changelog but it'd be good
to see a summary.

~~~
tybit
I’d love to know the performance improvements compared to 8 too, comparing 10
to 6 isn’t particularly useful though interesting.

------
baq
18 months is not what I call LTS. not even 30 months is LTS.

~~~
jannes
JavaScript code is basically obsolete as soon as it is written... In that
context 18 months might be a long time.

Edit: I probably wasn't clear enough that I was joking.

Edit 2: I also found out that the LTS release should receive 30 months of
maintenance. They say that end of life for node 10 will be April 2021.

~~~
qaq
? I work on large enterprise app in node there is code that was written 5
years ago and still works fine with 0 changes so not sure "JavaScript code is
basically obsolete as soon as it is written" is applicable on the server side.

~~~
koolba
I’m a huge fan of Node.js, particularly in the enterprise, but I question your
“ _0 changes..._ ” claim. At the very least you’ll have to update dependencies
to deal with breaks on their part due to upgrades.

~~~
nevi-me
As someone who has a fairly large codebase that's been largely untouched for
3-4 years, I'd disagree. Nothing has stopped me from updating some ancient
dependencies. Perhaps we should make a difference between Node and semver-
major library changes

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egeozcan
I don't see such a claim on the changelog. Am I missing it?

Edit: The original title spoke about huge latency and performance
improvements. It had been changed since I wrote this, hence this comment is
now obsolete.

~~~
vhbit
more likely that's compared to an earlier LTS version (8.x or 6.x)

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abuldauskas
Node 11 now comes with v8 v7.0, does this mean Webassembly threads are
supported? Or are they behind a flag?

~~~
lioeters
I was curious about this also, but couldn't find an answer. The most relevant
thing I learned was that WebAssembly is exposed as a global object since
Node.js 8.0.0, without a runtime flag.

[https://nodejs.org/api/globals.html#globals_webassembly](https://nodejs.org/api/globals.html#globals_webassembly)

A list of WebAssembly features implemented by Node.js can be found here (the
right most column):

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/WebAssembly#Browser...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/WebAssembly#Browser_compatibility)

------
Lerc
The linked page seems to not contain the words 'compute' or 'latency'

Is there a better link for the title or a better title for the link?

~~~
tobyhinloopen
[https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-
lt...](https://medium.com/@nodejs/october-brings-node-js-10-x-to-lts-and-node-
js-11-to-current-ae19f8f12b51)

