
Node v4.2.0 (Stable) - kenOfYugen
https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v4.2.0/
======
ausjke
"We are proud to announce the release of Node.js v4.2.0 "Argon", the first
release covered under the new Long Term Support plan!

As an LTS release, support for v4.x will continue for a period of 30 months
from today."

I'm a bit lost here, so 4.2.0 is the _first_ LTS, v4.x will be supported by 30
months, what about 4.0.0 then? isn't 4.0.0 also v4.x? but it's not LTS? Shoud
we replace v4.x above with v4.2.x instead?

~~~
watson
As far as I remember this is how it works:

Starting from 4.x, every 2nd major version of Node will be LTS (4.x, 6.x etc).
But we should expect a few of the early versions of each of these major
versions to not be LTS - hence 4.0.x and 4.1.x didn't count as LTS when they
were initially released.

But Node is now using Semantic Versioning [1], which mean that there will not
be any breaking changes between each 4.x release. So 4.2.x is backwards
compatible with 4.1.x and 4.0.x. And 4.3.x will be backwards compatible to
4.2.x etc.

So in essence the entire 4.x branch will therefore be LTS counting from today.
So even if we in 29 months release 4.22.0, this will not extend the 30 months.

[1] [http://semver.org](http://semver.org)

~~~
nevi-me
What happens 9 months down the line when v8 stable reaches 48.x? I thought
that under semver Node would most likely be a semver-major whenever v8 is the
same. If my assumption is correct, how will we handle 6.x and 8.x a potential
18 months from now? Will the LTS maintainers have to worry about 3 LTS
versions?

I've been following most discussions on Github and TC meetings, but haven't
come across this case yet.

~~~
lugg
From article,

> As an LTS release, support for v4.x will continue for a period of 30 months
> from today.

They will likely semver major node into 5/6 etc, but that doesn't change the
fact that 4.x will continue with 2 and a half years of LTS.

Not sure if that completely answers your question, and I could be wrong.

------
netcraft
This is great news. A year ago we didn't know if Node would ever hit a 1.0 and
now we have an LTS release. Congrats and thanks to everyone involved.

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yefim
Good to see the pace of Node development since the merger with io.js. Awesome
job, Node team!

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octref
Questions:

1\. On your dev machine, if you are using 4.x, should you keep updating to the
newest 4.x version or stay with this version?

2\. If you keep updating and use a version manager like nvm, is there an easy
way to install global packages(like gulp, grunt, etc) for new versions?

~~~
falcolas
Depends on what you're running in production. As an admin, I'd say stick with
the LTS releases. If you're not in production, or you can bundle your Node
with your app (like in a container) then I'd vote for "go wild".

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cdubzzz
Having just started learning about and using node, I read this release note
and then this made me say to myself, "What the fuck?"

[15:39 user@host ~] > node -v

v0.10.25

~~~
coldtea
> _Having just started learning about and using node, I read this release note
> and then this made me say to myself, "What the fuck?"_

If you've started learning node, then it probably makes sense to follow the
community portals and news too. In which case you'd known about io.js and the
4.x thing.

In other words, get into the whole project / community / culture.

~~~
yincrash
Not everyone has time to get into an entire community / culture when they just
need to use tools.

~~~
coldtea
On the contrary. It's when you _need_ to use the tools when you most have to
get into the community/culture.

If you just wanna learn something as a hobby, have fun, etc, then you don't
have to do anything.

But knowing about the product, its community and its release roadmap is
essential for anything you want to use to put something in production.

Actually it's essential for even considering to use this technology over
another. And I wont even get into security and stability issues that a closer
look at the project will make you aware of sooner.

------
Already__Taken
> npm: Upgrade to npm 2.14.7 from 2.14.4, see release notes for full details
> (Kat Marchán) #3299

Is that correct that npm 3.x with the flat node_modules isn't in the first lts
tree? We're still very likely to run into path length problems on Windows?

That would be a shame. I know 3.x doesn't fix it but anything to make it less
likely is a win. Now we're screwed for nearly 3 years.

~~~
tbrock
I'm not a node or npm apologist but it is seriously time Microsoft update what
it considers a reasonable maximum PATH length for Windows to something that
makes sense for this era of computing (as well as the tiny ass box you type it
into)

We are on a roll with resizable terminals that reflow text in Windows 10
though so I won't push my luck.

~~~
WorldMaker
It's not really a simple change: this is Microsoft respecting _decades_ of API
backward compatibility. New APIs support much higher PATH length, for what it
is worth, it's just that a _lot_ of software, for various accumulated reasons,
rely on older APIs.

For whatever their other faults, it's hard to blame Microsoft for treating
backwards compatibility _seriously_. It's an amazing thing that in 2015 you
can still run VB4-built Win32 application _binaries_ built in 1995. (Not that
I recommend people actually do so, given a choice in the matter, of course.)

~~~
jimmcslim
Agreed. But it still a bit disappointing that they haven't improved the GUI
for editing the system path (as observed by the parent comment), but perhaps
that also impacts backwards compatibility in some subtle way.

~~~
WorldMaker
The GUI has gotten a refresh in recent Windows 10 builds:

[http://www.ghacks.net/2015/09/22/microsoft-improves-
environm...](http://www.ghacks.net/2015/09/22/microsoft-improves-environment-
variables-editor-in-latest-windows-10-build/)

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cpeterso
'J' is the first letter without an element name. Maybe a new element will be
discovered and given a 'J' name before 2024. :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements)

~~~
myhf
Jargoon?

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geuis
This is good to hear.

Gonna play hell with seo for my open source projects:

[https://github.com/geuis/argon](https://github.com/geuis/argon)

[https://github.com/geuis/helium-css](https://github.com/geuis/helium-css)

~~~
dchest
Argon is also a password hash function:
[https://www.cryptolux.org/index.php/Argon](https://www.cryptolux.org/index.php/Argon)

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rmgraham
There are a couple regressions in v4.2.0, but v4.2.1 should be out right away
with fixes.

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bru_
"We are proud to announce the release of Node.js v4.2.0 "Ganja", the first
release covered under the new Long Term Support plan!"

