6 ms·

Node v4.1.0

108 points by tomkwok 11y ago

georgerobinson 11y ago
> Buffers are now created in JavaScript, rather than C++. This increases the speed of buffer creation. How can this be possible? How can allocation via JavaScript (which I assume must call malloc underneath) be faster than just malloc in C++? Does Node have a slab allocator for buffers like the Linux kernel has for task structs, or are objects allocated on the heap on demand?
- Shorel 11y ago
  Malloc in C/C++ is not particularly fast. Java for example does object instantiation much faster. It's also common to replace malloc with an in house implementation for performance sensitive code.
- LamaOfRuin 11y ago
  My guess is that it was previously implemented in nodejs C code instead of V8, and they switched the nodejs buffers to take advantage of V8 ArrayBuffers.
- phpnode 11y ago
  It's not the allocation itself that's faster, it's faster because it avoids the overhead of crossing the C++ -> JS barrier
applecore 11y ago
Is v4 ready for general use? Or should we continue using v0.12? (The main concern is compatibility with all the popular libraries in npm, the Node.js package ecosystem.)
- cvburgess 11y ago
  A lot of libraries have been following the iojs track (v1, v2, v3) so many libraries are already in place to support v4 out of the box. The best way to know though is test your specific packages in a dev branch or sandbox environment and see what breaks - tests help automate this if you have them!
  - mb22 11y ago
    webpack-dev certainly does not work.
    - chisleu 11y ago
      socket.io is a big deal, and it breaks on 4.0. I've not tried 4.1
      - yid 11y ago
        Consider using Primus [1] instead of socket.io, backed with either ws or sockjs. [1] https://github.com/primus/primus https://github.com/primus/primus
      - angersock 11y ago
        If possible, consider leaving socket.io. If you can, check out https://github.com/websockets/ws https://github.com/websockets/ws .
        tracker1 11y ago
        Doesn't seem to have a fallback mechanism, which is pretty important considering the number of users behind proxies that don't support web sockets... of course this depends on your user base.
        chisleu 11y ago
        Never heard of it. Thanks! I'll take a look at this. I only recently started using socket.io in my express site, so I'm not too deep down the rabbit hole. It seems to have close to the same syntax. Any reason why you support ws over socket.io?
        angersock 11y ago
        Socket.io is kinda big, the documentation is not great, there's a lot of baggage there from it's history, etc. ws is faster, and most browsers now support web sockets properly. If you want some isolation, there are various shim layers that are available.
HorizonXP 11y ago
Uh, didn't 4.0.0 just come out? Seems rather quick, no? How much could possibly have changed? The buffer creation change warrants a point bump?
- bryanlarsen 11y ago
  Choose 2: - semver - small, infrequently changing major & minor version numbers - large, active project
  - wolfgke 11y ago
    No, choosing all 3 is possible, too: Let semver hold, we have to prove that choosing 2 and 3 is then possible, too: For 2: Since semver implies that the version numbers increase fast with the number of releases, 2 can hold, if we only rarely release new versions. Note that this does not imply that it isn't large and active. For an example: If creating new releases takes a lot of time, few new versions will be releases, but the project can still be very active. To give a (slightly artificial) example: If (because of quality standards of the project) any release will also contain a machine-checked proof of correctness, creating a new release will take a long time. TLDR: A large, active project that only rarely releases new versions, but names them semantically has all three properties.
    - tracker1 11y ago
      There was a change that added or significantly changed functionality... this necessitates asemver minor bump. Point releases are generally for non-breaking patches or bug fixes.
      - wolfgke 11y ago
        I know what semver is. But my claim was that if you want all three claimed properties (which are claimed as incompatible), you can have them all.
- tehbeard 11y ago
  http://semver.org/ http://semver.org/ From the changelog it looks to be inline with this.
hammerha 11y ago
In my laptop $ node -v v0.12.7 What happened to Node?
- untog 11y ago
  It merged with iojs, switched to semantic versioning.
- dcchambers 11y ago
  io.js merged back in to node.js, and since they were so far ahead in version number, node jumped to 4.0 from 0.12.x. https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v4.0.0/ https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v4.0.0/
- Silhouette 11y ago
  The large version bump is because the Node and io projects have been reintegrating and they needed something that wouldn't be misleading for people coming from either background.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
hammerha 11y ago
In my laptop $ node -v v0.12.7 What in the world happened to Node?
kenOfYugen 11y ago
Seems like the io - node merge is working well so far. Frequent releases in the non breaking stable branch are the way to go.
xigency 11y ago
I don't like how they altered the scroll on their webpage.
- currysausage 11y ago
  I don't like how they altered the font on their webpage to something that is so thin that strokes are only visible as subpixels. Glad the API docs use a readable normal-weight font instead. If you need to visually "hide" the text in order to make it look "clean," you're doing typography wrong.
  - epmatsw 11y ago
    I wonder if they changed it since this comment. It's about the same as HN for me now.
  - freehunter 11y ago
    I thought it was odd how the page loads with normal text, then blinks for a second and the text gets 2x thinner. If it takes time to load your fonts, you're doing fonts wrong.
  - xigency 11y ago
    I'm fine with the fonts, I just noticed when I middle-clicked to scroll the page, the page moved like it was underwater. Really unnecessary for a text document. The offending CSS is: html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } Only noticing this issue in Firefox.
    - nilliams 11y ago
      As that is a CSS spec, the implementation of which you don't like, it's the browser that's offending, not the CSS.
      - xigency 11y ago
        Sure, if you like to read while you're wading through butter. It's a usability thing. Anyways, they do it on their whole site, and it's more cohesive on the other pages. It's better to view the release notes in readerview I guess.
discreditable 11y ago
Does it seem odd to anyone else that for verifying integrity they distribute a GPG-signed list of SHASUMS? Why not create a GPG signature for each blob?

108 points by tomkwok 11y ago

> Buffers are now created in JavaScript, rather than C++. This increases the speed of buffer creation. How can this be possible? How can allocation via JavaScript (which I assume must call malloc underneath) be faster than just malloc in C++? Does Node have a slab allocator for buffers like the Linux kernel has for task structs, or are objects allocated on the heap on demand?

Shorel 11y ago
Malloc in C/C++ is not particularly fast. Java for example does object instantiation much faster. It's also common to replace malloc with an in house implementation for performance sensitive code.
LamaOfRuin 11y ago
My guess is that it was previously implemented in nodejs C code instead of V8, and they switched the nodejs buffers to take advantage of V8 ArrayBuffers.
phpnode 11y ago
It's not the allocation itself that's faster, it's faster because it avoids the overhead of crossing the C++ -> JS barrier

applecore 11y ago

Is v4 ready for general use? Or should we continue using v0.12? (The main concern is compatibility with all the popular libraries in npm, the Node.js package ecosystem.)

cvburgess 11y ago
A lot of libraries have been following the iojs track (v1, v2, v3) so many libraries are already in place to support v4 out of the box. The best way to know though is test your specific packages in a dev branch or sandbox environment and see what breaks - tests help automate this if you have them!
- mb22 11y ago
  webpack-dev certainly does not work.
  - chisleu 11y ago
    socket.io is a big deal, and it breaks on 4.0. I've not tried 4.1
    - yid 11y ago
      Consider using Primus [1] instead of socket.io, backed with either ws or sockjs. [1] https://github.com/primus/primus https://github.com/primus/primus
    - angersock 11y ago
      If possible, consider leaving socket.io. If you can, check out https://github.com/websockets/ws https://github.com/websockets/ws .
      - tracker1 11y ago
        Doesn't seem to have a fallback mechanism, which is pretty important considering the number of users behind proxies that don't support web sockets... of course this depends on your user base.
      - chisleu 11y ago
        Never heard of it. Thanks! I'll take a look at this. I only recently started using socket.io in my express site, so I'm not too deep down the rabbit hole. It seems to have close to the same syntax. Any reason why you support ws over socket.io?
        angersock 11y ago
        Socket.io is kinda big, the documentation is not great, there's a lot of baggage there from it's history, etc. ws is faster, and most browsers now support web sockets properly. If you want some isolation, there are various shim layers that are available.

HorizonXP 11y ago

Uh, didn't 4.0.0 just come out? Seems rather quick, no? How much could possibly have changed? The buffer creation change warrants a point bump?

bryanlarsen 11y ago
Choose 2: - semver - small, infrequently changing major & minor version numbers - large, active project
- wolfgke 11y ago
  No, choosing all 3 is possible, too: Let semver hold, we have to prove that choosing 2 and 3 is then possible, too: For 2: Since semver implies that the version numbers increase fast with the number of releases, 2 can hold, if we only rarely release new versions. Note that this does not imply that it isn't large and active. For an example: If creating new releases takes a lot of time, few new versions will be releases, but the project can still be very active. To give a (slightly artificial) example: If (because of quality standards of the project) any release will also contain a machine-checked proof of correctness, creating a new release will take a long time. TLDR: A large, active project that only rarely releases new versions, but names them semantically has all three properties.
  - tracker1 11y ago
    There was a change that added or significantly changed functionality... this necessitates asemver minor bump. Point releases are generally for non-breaking patches or bug fixes.
    - wolfgke 11y ago
      I know what semver is. But my claim was that if you want all three claimed properties (which are claimed as incompatible), you can have them all.
tehbeard 11y ago
http://semver.org/ http://semver.org/ From the changelog it looks to be inline with this.

hammerha 11y ago

In my laptop $ node -v v0.12.7 What happened to Node?

untog 11y ago
It merged with iojs, switched to semantic versioning.
dcchambers 11y ago
io.js merged back in to node.js, and since they were so far ahead in version number, node jumped to 4.0 from 0.12.x. https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v4.0.0/ https://nodejs.org/en/blog/release/v4.0.0/
Silhouette 11y ago
The large version bump is because the Node and io projects have been reintegrating and they needed something that wouldn't be misleading for people coming from either background.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

hammerha 11y ago

In my laptop $ node -v v0.12.7 What in the world happened to Node?

kenOfYugen 11y ago

Seems like the io - node merge is working well so far. Frequent releases in the non breaking stable branch are the way to go.

xigency 11y ago

I don't like how they altered the scroll on their webpage.

currysausage 11y ago
I don't like how they altered the font on their webpage to something that is so thin that strokes are only visible as subpixels. Glad the API docs use a readable normal-weight font instead. If you need to visually "hide" the text in order to make it look "clean," you're doing typography wrong.
- epmatsw 11y ago
  I wonder if they changed it since this comment. It's about the same as HN for me now.
- freehunter 11y ago
  I thought it was odd how the page loads with normal text, then blinks for a second and the text gets 2x thinner. If it takes time to load your fonts, you're doing fonts wrong.
- xigency 11y ago
  I'm fine with the fonts, I just noticed when I middle-clicked to scroll the page, the page moved like it was underwater. Really unnecessary for a text document. The offending CSS is: html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } Only noticing this issue in Firefox.
  - nilliams 11y ago
    As that is a CSS spec, the implementation of which you don't like, it's the browser that's offending, not the CSS.
    - xigency 11y ago
      Sure, if you like to read while you're wading through butter. It's a usability thing. Anyways, they do it on their whole site, and it's more cohesive on the other pages. It's better to view the release notes in readerview I guess.

discreditable 11y ago

Does it seem odd to anyone else that for verifying integrity they distribute a GPG-signed list of SHASUMS? Why not create a GPG signature for each blob?