7 ms·

Dumb question, from someone who doesn't work with Node.js: Why are there 32 versions of it?

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mayank 11y ago
Semantic versioning -- basically each version here is x.y.z for some x, y, z. Node patch releases (.z) happen reasonably fast and constitute a "version of node" as used here.
stronglikedan 11y ago
Even though Node isn't a framework (it's a cross-platform, runtime environment), it is used a base for application development. However, over time, things are changed and improved, but that breaks some of the API functionality upon which some existing applications are already built around. Since these applications still run fine with a previous version, they are not likely to be constantly updated to work with later versions. Therefore, previous versions are still offered to maintain compatibility with applications that have already been developed. However, if you're starting work on a new Node application, then you are better off using the latest version.
swalsh 11y ago
Node.js has that 60's free love nudist colony experiment feel.
- tomc1985 11y ago
  Except that everyone is crazy and high off the fumes of DIY ...actually that does sound pretty 60s
tlrobinson 11y ago
There are actually 303 versions of node (including iojs, according to the Node Version Manager): $ nvm ls-remote | wc -l 303 Most of those are patch releases. There are 47 minor releases and 6 major releases: $ nvm ls-remote | grep -oE 'v\d+\.\d+' | uniq | wc -l 47 $ nvm ls-remote | grep -oE 'v\d+' | uniq | wc -l 6 Most language implementations probably have similar number of releases.
- diggan 11y ago
  That is absolutely true, 32 versions is not all versions of node, but it's the number of tags from the mhart/alpine-node[1] docker images that autochecker is using for the testing. [1] - https://hub.docker.com/r/mhart/alpine-node/tags/ https://hub.docker.com/r/mhart/alpine-node/tags/
- coolmitch 11y ago
  yeah -- perhaps there's a lot of negative things to be said about node, but the fact that they've released multiple versions? really? https://clojure.org/community/downloads_older https://clojure.org/community/downloads_older http://www.scala-lang.org/download/all.html http://www.scala-lang.org/download/all.html https://www.python.org/downloads/ https://www.python.org/downloads/ etc...
  - colanderman 11y ago
    I don't think the issue is that they've released multiple versions, it's more that they've had so many backward-incompatible releases. Python and OCaml have had 3 each. Libc has had 6. 32 for something that's been around less than a decade is a bit excessive. Are all these 32 actually backwards-incompatible?
    - lucideer 11y ago
      They're not strictly backward incompatible: one should ideally only have to test across the major versions (nodejs is currently on major version 5, though that's not strictly reflective given the fork to iojs, and the change in versioning system on merge back) Testing across all 32 (or 303) versions is still going to be useful for catching bugs and quirks between minor versions (as opposed to deliberate, documented breaking API changes)
      - merb 11y ago
        actually for the sake of correctness, you should also test version 4 which is lts (if you are a library author) (https://github.com/nodejs/LTS https://github.com/nodejs/LTS) I mean v0.10 and v0.12 are also LTS but I doubt that if you have a bigger library that its nearly impossible to support all four
kafkaesq 11y ago
I would think the more fundamental question is -- are these 32 (or 303) different versions so non-backward-compatible that the need to test on all of them is just an accepted thing out in Node.js-land? That everyone just kind of shrugs and puts up with (the way MS Windows used to crash on a near daily-basis for nearly everyone, not too many years ago)? I know that other languages also have issues in this regard -- but for more mature languages it seems to be more an exception than than the rule (restricted to certain platforms of subsystems, say).
eikenberry 11y ago
I'm more intereted in why would you need to test against 32 versions of node.js? Doesn't it maintain backwards compatibility? Shouldn't testing against one version cover it?

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Semantic versioning -- basically each version here is x.y.z for some x, y, z. Node patch releases (.z) happen reasonably fast and constitute a "version of node" as used here.

stronglikedan 11y ago

Even though Node isn't a framework (it's a cross-platform, runtime environment), it is used a base for application development. However, over time, things are changed and improved, but that breaks some of the API functionality upon which some existing applications are already built around. Since these applications still run fine with a previous version, they are not likely to be constantly updated to work with later versions. Therefore, previous versions are still offered to maintain compatibility with applications that have already been developed. However, if you're starting work on a new Node application, then you are better off using the latest version.

swalsh 11y ago

Node.js has that 60's free love nudist colony experiment feel.

tomc1985 11y ago
Except that everyone is crazy and high off the fumes of DIY ...actually that does sound pretty 60s

tlrobinson 11y ago

There are actually 303 versions of node (including iojs, according to the Node Version Manager): $ nvm ls-remote | wc -l 303 Most of those are patch releases. There are 47 minor releases and 6 major releases: $ nvm ls-remote | grep -oE 'v\d+\.\d+' | uniq | wc -l 47 $ nvm ls-remote | grep -oE 'v\d+' | uniq | wc -l 6 Most language implementations probably have similar number of releases.

diggan 11y ago
That is absolutely true, 32 versions is not all versions of node, but it's the number of tags from the mhart/alpine-node[1] docker images that autochecker is using for the testing. [1] - https://hub.docker.com/r/mhart/alpine-node/tags/ https://hub.docker.com/r/mhart/alpine-node/tags/
coolmitch 11y ago
yeah -- perhaps there's a lot of negative things to be said about node, but the fact that they've released multiple versions? really? https://clojure.org/community/downloads_older https://clojure.org/community/downloads_older http://www.scala-lang.org/download/all.html http://www.scala-lang.org/download/all.html https://www.python.org/downloads/ https://www.python.org/downloads/ etc...
- colanderman 11y ago
  I don't think the issue is that they've released multiple versions, it's more that they've had so many backward-incompatible releases. Python and OCaml have had 3 each. Libc has had 6. 32 for something that's been around less than a decade is a bit excessive. Are all these 32 actually backwards-incompatible?
  - lucideer 11y ago
    They're not strictly backward incompatible: one should ideally only have to test across the major versions (nodejs is currently on major version 5, though that's not strictly reflective given the fork to iojs, and the change in versioning system on merge back) Testing across all 32 (or 303) versions is still going to be useful for catching bugs and quirks between minor versions (as opposed to deliberate, documented breaking API changes)
    - merb 11y ago
      actually for the sake of correctness, you should also test version 4 which is lts (if you are a library author) (https://github.com/nodejs/LTS https://github.com/nodejs/LTS) I mean v0.10 and v0.12 are also LTS but I doubt that if you have a bigger library that its nearly impossible to support all four

kafkaesq 11y ago

I would think the more fundamental question is -- are these 32 (or 303) different versions so non-backward-compatible that the need to test on all of them is just an accepted thing out in Node.js-land? That everyone just kind of shrugs and puts up with (the way MS Windows used to crash on a near daily-basis for nearly everyone, not too many years ago)? I know that other languages also have issues in this regard -- but for more mature languages it seems to be more an exception than than the rule (restricted to certain platforms of subsystems, say).

eikenberry 11y ago

I'm more intereted in why would you need to test against 32 versions of node.js? Doesn't it maintain backwards compatibility? Shouldn't testing against one version cover it?