Hello, Happy Tuesday, and welcome to the Startup CTO Corner. Today I wanted to talk about book that I have really enjoyed and recommend to other developers and CTO’s who want to learn more about Node.js. We are at a time where software development can be done more rapidly than ever before thanks to things like the rails framework and between Ruby on Rail and Node.js it is easier than ever to prototype your idea and get something in front of the world.
There are two things I truly appreciate about Node.js:
It’s Javascript – most developers are already very familiar with Javascript, I’ve been using it for over ten years and it’s pretty cool to see it not only actively used but in fact more popular than ever!- It’s fast – speed matters more than ever now. Google uses page load time as a key component in their search algorithm and with more and more people using mobile speed also directly impacts usability.
LinkedIn actually decided to move from Ruby on Rails to Node.js after finding it difficult to scale with Ruby on Rails. While Node.js is still very much in its infancy the fact that it’s all Javascript means that the learning curve doesn’t have to be too steep, as long as you have the right resources. Unfortunately for years the resources have been spread around the web, until now.
Azat Mardanov is an engineer for Storify who teaches Node.js at General Assembly and Hack Reactor and has 12 years of experience in web and mobile software development. As a big fan of Node.js and an active teacher in the space he decided to bring these resources together into an awesome book, aptly called Rapid Prototyping with Node.js.
I’ve been going through the current edition of the book and am absolutely loving it. Refreshing to find everything you need to get started with Node.js all in one book and Azat does a great job of walking the reader through some solid examples that make it easy to get hands-on experience. Below are what a few other readers have said about the book:
- “Azat’s tutorials are crucial to the development of Sidepon.com interactive UX and the success of getting us featured on TheNextWeb.com and reached profitability.” — Kenson Goo (Sidepon.com)
- “I had a lot of fun reading this book and following its examples! It showcases and helps you discover a huge variety of technologies that everyone should consider using in their own projects.” — Chema Balsas
The book is published through LeanPub, which, as the name sounds is a lean publishing company. This means that you can buy the book today and know that it will continue to grow and update itself over time. So if you’ve been trying to decide between Ruby on Rails and Node.js, or if you’ve ever wanted to get started with rapid prototyping I highly recommend this book.
Want more? You can read a sample of the book online.
