JavaScript is a lightweight, object-oriented scripting language that is used to build dynamic HTML pages with interactive effects on a webpage. On the other hand, Node.js usually represents a list of objects and methods accessible to JavaScript code when run in the V8 engine or via the node interpreter.
In this article, we are going to discuss the difference between JavaScript and Node.js. But before discussing the differences, we will know about JavaScript and Node.js.
What is JavaScript?
Javascript is a lightweight, object-oriented scripting language that is used to build dynamic HTML pages with interactive effects on a webpage. JavaScript is also commonly used in game development and mobile app development. It is an interpreted scripting language, and the code can only be executed and run in a web browser. We can use Node.js to execute and run the code outside of the browser. It’s also known as a browser’s language, and it can be used for both client-side and server-side development. Brendan Eich of Netscape created it, and it was first published in 1995. The language was originally known as LiveScript before being renamed JavaScript. JavaScript’s syntax is heavily influenced by the programming language C. The extension of JavaScript filename is .js.
Advantages and disadvantages of JavaScript
Various advantages and disadvantages of JavaScript are as follows:
Advantages
- It is an open-source, flexible, fast, light-weighted framework.
- It allows cross-compilation.
- It supports interfaces, modules, and classes.
- It is used for both frontend and backend development so that it may run on different devices.
- It allows us to build interfaces that react whenever the user hovers the mouse over them.
- It is friendly with other languages; therefore, many other applications may use JavaScript.
- We may extend the JavaScript for writing large applications.
Disadvantages
- It makes use of limited libraries.
- Client-side JavaScript doesn’t support writing or reading files. It has been only keeping for security purposes.
- A single error may destroy the entire website.
- It is a dynamic language so that developers may make big mistakes easily.
- It only supports the single inheritance, not multiple inheritances. Some programs might be required this object-oriented language feature.
What is Node.js?
Node.js is a cross-platform, open-source JavaScript runtime environment that enables JavaScript to be run on the server. Node.js enables JavaScript code to run outside of the browser. Node.js comes with a large number of modules and is mostly used in web creation. It may run on various platforms including, Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc. It provides a cross-platform runtime environment with event-driven, non-blocking (asynchronous) I/O for creating highly scalable server-side JavaScript applications.
Node.js was developed and introduced by Ryan Dahl in 2009. Node.js can be used to create a variety of applications, including web apps, real-time chat apps, command-line apps, and REST API servers, among others. However, it is mainly used to build network programs such as web servers. The standard filename extension of Node.js is .js.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Node.js
Various types of advantages and disadvantages of Node.js are as follows:
Advantages
- js is an MIT-licensed open-source framework.
- It is a lightweight framework that includes minimum modules. Other modules may be included as per the requirement of an application.
- It’s a cross-platform framework that works on Windows, MAC, and Linux.
- It is used the JavaScript language to develop server-side applications.
- js applications never buffered any type of data in applications. Node.js applications simply output data in chunks.
- The Node.js library’s APIs are all asynchronous or non-blocking. It simply means that a Node.js based server never waits to return data from an API. After calling an API, the server passes on to the next one, and a Node.js notification mechanism assists the server in receiving a response from the previous API call.
- js is a quick programming execution library built on the V8 JavaScript Engine in Google Chrome.
Disadvantages
- One of the big disadvantages of Node.js is its lack of consistency. The API changes regularly, which increases the developers’ problems because they’ll have to make changes to their current code base to maintain compatibility.
- It doesn’t support multi-threading programming, and it is not with the development of heavy computing applications.
- In contrast to other programming languages, JavaScript lacks a well-equipped and functional library framework. As a result, users are forced to need a common library to execute various tasks, including the process of the pictures, XML parsing, Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), and handling database operations, etc. It makes it difficult to developers to also implement basic programming tasks with Node.js.
Main differences between JavaScript and Node.js
Here, we are going to discuss the main differences between JavaScript and Node.js:
- JavaScript is a lightweight, cross-platform, interpreted scripting programming language that is primarily used for client-side scripting. It’s built into both Java and HTML. On the other hand, Node.js is a server-side scripting language based on the Google Chrome V8 engine. As a result, it’s used to build network-centric applications. It is a distributed system that is used for data-intensive real-time applications.
- JavaScript is a simple programming language that could be run in any browser that supports the JavaScript Engine. On the other hand, Node.js is a running environment or interpreter for the JavaScript programming language. It needs libraries that may be easily accessed from JavaScript programming to make it more useful.
- JavaScript can run on any engine, including Firefox’s Spider Monkey, Safari’s JavaScript Core, and V8 (Google Chrome). As a result, JavaScript programming is very simple to create, and any running environment is equivalent to a proper browser. On the other hand, Node.js only supports the V8 engine, which is exclusive to Google Chrome. However, written JavaScript code can run in any environment, regardless of whether it supports the V8 engine.
- A particular non-blocking task is needed to access any operating system. There are some basic objects in JavaScript, but they are all os-specific. For example, ActiveX Control is a Windows-only application. However, Node.js is granted the ability to run non-blocking tasks unique to the operating system from any JavaScript programming. There are no os-specific constants in it. Node.js is well-versed in creating a clear binding with the file system, allowing the developer to read and write to disk.
- For a single web application, JavaScript is typically used for any client-side operation. An operation may be dealing with business validation, dynamic page display at a set time interval, or a simple Ajax call. For any web application, these are used for a maximum amount of time. On the other hand, Node.js is generally used for non-blocking accessibility or execution of any operating system. On an operating system, a non-blocking operation involves generating or executing a shell script, retrieving unique hardware-related information in a single call, obtaining installed certificate details in the system, or performing a large number of specified tasks.
- JavaScript’s main advantages include a wide range of interfaces and interactivity and just the right amount of server contact and direct input to visitors. On the other hand, Node.js has a node package manager with over 500 modules and the ability to handle concurrent requests. It also has the special capability of supporting micro-service architecture as well as IoT.
Head-to-head Comparison between JavaScript and Node JS
Here, we are going to discuss the head-to-head comparison between JavaScript and Node JS:
| Features | JavaScript | Node JS |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | It is an open-source, cross-platform, interpreted, lightweight scripting programming language that is used to develop dynamic and web applications. | It is a cross-platform, open-source JavaScript runtime environment that allows JavaScript to be run on the server. |
| Type | It is a programming language. It works in any browser that has a proper browser engine. | It’s a JavaScript interpreter and environment with some valuable libraries that JavaScript programming can use separately. |
| Dedicated Server | It is generally used on the client-side server. | It is generally used on the server-side. |
| Community | All the JavaScript is not important to the node community. | All node projects represent the JavaScript community. |
| Running Engines | JavaScript can be run on any engine, including Spider Monkey, V8, and JavaScript Core. | Node JS is only supported by the V8 engine, which Google Chrome mostly uses. Any JavaScript program written with Node JS will always be run in the V8 engine. |
| Used for | It is designed to build network-centric applications. | It’s designed for data-intensive real-time applications that run on several platforms. |
| Languages | It’s a newer version of the ECMA script that runs on Chrome’s V8 engine, which is written in C++. | It uses C, C++, and JavaScript. |
| Modules | Few JavaScript frameworks are TypedJS, RamdaJS, etc. | Lodash, express are examples of Nodejs modules. These all modules are to be imported from npm. |
| Companies Uses | Various companies use JavaScript like Google, Shopify, Udacity, Sendgrid, Groupon, Okta, Instacart, etc. | Various companies use Node Js like Netflix, Hapi, Walmart, Paypal, Linkedin, Trello, Medium, eBay, etc. |
Conclusion
JavaScript is a widely-used programming language that almost every web application developer uses. It is very simple to locate a resource on the subject to work on JavaScript and do some basic development. Node JS is a JavaScript library extension, but it includes certain undefined utilities, such as non-blocking operating system operation, which is often critical for meeting company objectives. It may also be shown to the user who has signed in from a different system for security purposes.
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