Chapter 1. About Node.js

Node.js is an exciting new platform for developing web applications, application servers, any sort of network server or client, and general purpose programming. It is designed for extreme scalability in networked applications through an ingenious combination of server-side JavaScript, asynchronous I/O, asynchronous programming, built around JavaScript anonymous functions, and a single execution thread event-driven architecture.

While only a few years old, Node.js has quickly grown in prominence to where it's playing a significant role. Companies, small and large, are using it for large-scale and small-scale projects. PayPal, for example, has converted many services from Java to Node.js.

The Node.js model is very different ...

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