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Book Overview & Buying
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Table Of Contents
Mastering JavaScript Single Page Application Development
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Node.js is a runtime environment built to execute JavaScript. With it, you can build powerful software, such as full-fledged backend web servers. In Chapter 1 , Getting Organized with NPM, Bower, and Grunt, you began to use some Node.js-based tools, such as Grunt, NPM, and the Node Package Manager.
Node.js is powerful, and extremely fast. It is based on the V8 JavaScript engine that's used in the Chrome browser and is tuned for speed. It uses a non-blocking I/O that allows it to handle many requests simultaneously.
This chapter assumes that you have already installed the Node runtime. If not, go to https://nodejs.org, and follow the installation instructions for your operating system Node version 4.3.2 has been used in this book.
Node.js provides a way to enter a run JavaScript code from the command line called the Read-Eval-Print Loop or REPL. You can start the REPL simply by typing node at the command line in a console. It's a great way to begin exploring...