Just a guy in Vermont trying to connect all the dots...
Dan York
Author's posts
Mar 12
Mashable: Why Everyone Is Talking About Node.js
If you are wondering why so much attention is focused on Node.js these days in the online media and sites (including my own writing about Node.js), Mashable had a decent post this week called:
It’s a good overview that explains much about why Node.js is so interesting to so many people. I’m not sure I agree with the author about the Ruby community being “exclusive and harsh”. I experienced nothing but helpful assistance back when I was learning Ruby. The Node.js community, though, has definitely been very welcoming to newcomers so far.
Regardless of that probably unnecessary dig, the overall article was a good overview of Node and is certainly worth a read.
Mar 03
Online Preview Available of O’Reilly’s Upcoming “Up and Running with Node.js”
Tom Hughes-Croucher is writing a book for O’Reilly & Associates about Node.js called “Up and Running with Node.js” and he tweeted out today that a preview of the book is now available online at:
As he says in the author intro:
When Simon, my editor, and I were initially discussing this project it was obvious how vibrant the Node.js community is. We felt that it was important that we engaged with the community as we worked on this manuscript. In order to do that we decided to release the book in parts as I wrote it. What you are reading now is one of those partial releases.
It’s very cool that he’s made the text available and will be continuing to update it as the book evolves. Apparently he has to do something to enable commenting, but shortly you should be able to comment on his text.
Nice to see authors doing this to solicit input from the larger community before a book is actually printed. Very cool.
Mar 02
7 Deadliest UC Attacks Mentioned at Enterprise Connect
As an author, it's wonderful to hear that the book is really helping people understand UC security issues.
Thanks again for all the kind words and mentions!
Mar 02
Great (long!) Article on Node.js in The Register
What is Node.js all about? How did it come about? What prompted Ryan Dahl to create Node? What other languages did he try? Who are some of the companies using Node.js, and why? What does Google think about Node.js, given that they maintain the V8 JavaScript engine used by Node? What are the kind of performance gains you can see in Node?
Answers to all those questions and many more are in a lengthy piece on The Register titled “The Node Ahead: JavaScript leaps from browser into future“. It’s a well done article and rather than excerpt it here, I’d encourage you to go take a look at the full piece. Interesting to read about some of the background of which I was not aware. Good stuff!
Feb 27
Quick Way to See What Programming Languages Are Used on Github
Ever wonder what programming languages are the most popular? One way is to look at a programming community and see what is being used within that space. A large community right now in 2011 is the people using Github for git repositories (and I am one of those) and Github nicely provides a URL showing the languages in use:
When I look at the chart at the time I’m writing this post, it looks like this:
This is across 600,000+ developers and close to 1.8 million git repositories.
Given that historically many Ruby developers used git and Github, it’s not surprising to see Ruby there. With JavaScript, I have to wonder if its ranking is due to the phenomenal interest in Node.js and the heavy usage of git and Github within that community. Glad to see my old friend python hanging in there, too. The Microsoft languages like C# are missing… but then they simply may not be well represented within the Github user base.
Like any measurement this can only be taken as language popularity within the Github community. Measurement within another community would give different results. Still, the Github space is very vibrant and dynamic with lots of energy… it’s interesting to see what folks there are using.
Feb 23
Upgraded Code.DanYork.Com to WordPress 3.1…
Tonight I just upgraded Code.DanYork.com to the shiny new WordPress 3.1… it’s the first of several sites I’ll be upgrading so this is mostly a test. If you see anything funky, please do let me know…. and, man, I keep loving what the WordPress community keeps on developing! Cool stuff!
Feb 22
Free eBook: Mastering Node.js (still a work-in-progress – and NEEDS YOUR HELP)
As I continue my own exploration of Node.js, I was pleased to see that a free eBook, Mastering Node.js, was available about Node.js from none other than TJ Holowaychuk, a big contributor to the Node.js community. You can get the current version of the book at:
However, there is the one little detail… it’s still very much a work-in-progress. As TJ Holowaychuk says on the Github page for the project:
Mastering node is an open source eBook by node hackers for node hackers. I started this as a side project and realized that I don’t have time 🙂 so go nuts, download it, build it, fork it, extend it and share it. If you come up with something you wish to contribute back, send me a pull request.
It is a good start on a book… and if anyone out there wants to add to it and help fill out the contents, he’s obviously open to that assistance.
Feb 16
Follow The Tropo Blog To Learn About Developing For Voice, SMS, IM, Twitter…
Want to learn about how to build apps that interact with people via voice, text messaging / SMS, instant messaging and Twitter? Using languages like Ruby, python, PHP, Groovy and Node.js?
If so, check out the Tropo blog for some cool examples, tutorials and videos. As I was catching up on my Twitter feed this morning, I noticed a great post there about responding differently to different types of users and a short video about using SMS to find the time and date of tweetchats. Cool stuff!
P.S. And yes, in full disclosure Tropo.com is a cloud communications service of my employer, Voxeo, and I do myself sometimes write on the Tropo blog, particularly about python or Node.js. However, if I didn’t think what they are writing about there is in fact interesting, I wouldn’t mention it here. 🙂
Feb 13
Nodester Node.js hosting service adds domain mapping, multiple module install
Chris Matthieu and DanBUK continue to iterate fast on their Nodester Node.js service. A bit ago they added a command-line interface to make apps even easier to deploy. The funky part was that to install a module for your Node.js app, you had to type nodester appnpm install modulename. Thankfully, they’ve made that much simpler… now you can just do:
nodester npm install modulename
Chris dropped me a note tonight to let me know that they’ve made it so that you can install multiple modules at once. For example:
nodester npm install express socket.io tropo-webapi
Another cool recent addition is the ability to map a custom domain to a Node.js app running on Nodester. Cool to see!
Feb 12
Want to learn about Node.js? Excellent set of videos coming out of Node.js Camp
Interested in learning more about Node.js and the surrounding ecosystem of tools and modules? The folks over at Joyent have made available a set of videos covering the Node.js Camp that occurred December 14, 2010, in San Francisco. You can view them all at:
Nice range of topics… looks like a fun event…
