Every single working day I spend between 2 and 2.5 hours in a train. And I feel pretty lucky about this, mostly because is one single train, no need to pay attention for switch overs or other kind of public transports, and that allows me to invest that time in whatever task I want: podcasts, videos, blogging or even programming. And that’s what I want this post to focus in, because there are plenty of posts that explain how to use a Chromebook for day-to-day tasks (even being offline) but not that many that talk about programming in node.
Function composition is one the key features (among others) of functional programming. Programming languages that offer higher order functions as a feature can potentially use function composition. But, still, programmers need to be aware of some key concepts to successfully apply this pattern in our code.
Function composition, as defined on Wikipedia, is an act or mechanism to combine simple functions to build more complicated ones. In other words, we can define new functions, equivalent to the result of chaining a set of given functions, so the input of function i is the output (or result) of function i-1.
The way you structure your code is a key factor when you define your source code organization. It will make your life easier or miserable, and once this structure is established it will become a really tedious task to redefine it. That’s why you know about the different patterns available and choose the one fits your project best.
But, why should I care about modules? Well, is the way Javascript offers to organize and encapsulate your code, and if you don’t think you need to do it, because maybe it’s a small project or you don’t care at all, trust me, you are making a huge mistake!
Javascript is an old well-known friend that is growing rapidly and gaining traction since Node.js, a command line Javascript interpreter based on Chrome V8 Javascript Virtual Machine, was published. Its community is building great stuff, and more and more companies are moving into this stack, with a high success ratio.
http://nodegeek.net Luckily for me, for my last two professional years I have been involved in one way or another with it, been able to relearn the language and discover its framework.
Code modularization, achieved in one way or another, is a technique a good developer must aim for because it helps keeping things small, well-tested and organized. And of course, it follows the DRY directive. So as a Node.js developer (and maybe contributor to the Open Source), creating and publishing an NPM module is one of those steps you will eventually face.
Probably if any Node.js developer would have to pick an indispensable tool of the ecosystem, npm would win by far.
The Node.js ecosystem is quite young and prolific: new tools appear almost every day or week, changing and turning upside down your current workflow, always trying to squeeze a little more productivity to your time and effort or simply making your work easier.
As an example, take a look on the NodeFramework page, where Azat Mardanov (@azat_co) collects lot’s of frameworks and utilities related to Node.js. Or NodeWebModules, more web oriented than the previous one, from Caio Ribeiro Pereira (@crp_underground).
Talking about Node.js history, it’s talking a little bit about V8 history. But let’s start with a one line definition of what it is: Node.js is a platform built around Google Chrome V8 Javascript engine, to create lightweight, fast, scalable, event-driven and non-blocking I/O applications. So lets begin talking about Node.js origins, the V8 javascript engine.
V8 is an opensource project by Google and it is in the very core of Google Chrome browser.
Wellcome to this new site where you’ll find lots of information about Node.js, Javascript and HTML 5 technologies! This project is a chance for me to share my passion about these new and amazing technologies, trying to make you easier to step into it and to discuss and enjoy technology talks to whomever who wants to.
It will be mainly focused on Node.js, but sometimes we will talk about generic Javascript or even frontend Javascript related to HTML5 capabilities.
