Looking back at Node.js in 2021
December 23, 2021 
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The Best of Node Weekly in 2021 This is the last issue of the year (we’re back on January 13 as we’re taking a two week break) so we’re taking a look back at some of the most popular links that we’ve shared throughout 2021. There’s bound to be a few that escaped your attention at the time 🙂 |
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1: Ask HN: Why is Node.js ‘Hated’ So Much? — Ok, this one clearly caught your attention. We shared this Hacker News discussion back in October and there’s plenty of comments to look over here – many fair, some not. We said at the time that it’s best to remain philosophical on things like this and remember C++’s creator who said: “There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.” Hacker News |
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2: Guidelines for Choosing a Node.js Framework — Hapi? Koa? Express? Slow down. Unlike a lot of articles, this one from late September doesn’t give you any specific framework suggestions, but instead arms you with what you should be looking at when weighing up your options. Simon Plenderleith |
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4: NestJS Explained in 100 Seconds — This video, shared back in August, introduces the high-level concepts of Nest, a framework for building scalable Node.js apps that offers more (beyond what you might get with something like Express or Fastify alone). All presented in around two minutes. Fireship video |
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5: A Comprehensive Guide to Error Handling in Node — Node offers up plenty of ways for errors to crop up and exceptions to be thrown – this post from last month skims through some of the main areas you may want to consider. Ayooluwa Isaiah (Honeybadger) |
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6: 40+ Node.js Integration Test Best Practices — This popular repository digs into a variety of quick-fire patterns and practices for creating good component/integration tests. There’s also a demo app and examples to check out using Jest, Mocha, Express, Fastify and Nest.js. Yoni Goldberg, Michael Solomon, and Daniel Gluskin |
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7: Using Google Drive as a CMS — This post from July offers up something a little bit different — an exploration of using Google Drive to store content for rendering out to a site by way of its API and Node.js. Nathan Babcock |
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8: Tasuku (タスク): A Minimal Task Runner for Node — Japanese for ‘task’, this tool provides a clean way to break up processes into small tasks which can then be run in the right order with progress displayed elegantly in the terminal. hiroki osame |
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9: Node v16.9.0 (Current) Released — The big addition to this release from early September was Corepack, an experimental tool for managing package managers directly within the Node distribution itself. Michaël Zasso |
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10: Best Practices for Logging in Node — A collection of tips walking through logging essentials – things like avoiding logging sensitive information, writing descriptive messages, and using logging levels correctly. Ayo Isaiah |
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12: Node.js Garbage Collection Explained — Explains how garbage collection and memory management works in practice with Node.js complete with illustrations and code examples. This post was updated in September. RisingStack Engineering |
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13: Is Deno Still a Thing? A Look at the Status of the ‘Node Killer’ — This isn’t a particularly deep piece, but its appeal with Node Weekly readers is a reminder that it’s often worth the occasional look at what’s going on on the ‘other side of fence’, so to speak. Deno has, of course, continued to grow well in 2021. Fernando Doglio |
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14: Supercharging Node with Rust — This post from October explored whether you can integrate Node code with things written in Rust? The answer is yes, and this post is a basic introduction to the concepts involved. Dmitry Kudryavtsev |
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That’s a wrap.. We’re taking a couple of weeks off for Christmas and the New Year, so we’ll be back with you on January 13, 2022. Many thanks for reading Node Weekly this year. From all of us here at Cooperpress, season’s greetings to you, however you celebrate (or not!) 😄 |
