6 ms·

Heroku Node.js Support (experimental)

123 points by jmonegro 16y ago

BrianHammond 16y ago
The big question is if Heroku will suddenly support a fairly large number of long-lived connections to a Node.js hosted app, and how pricing would work. Developing real-time apps and custom servers are how Node.js really shines. A WebSockets module took only a few hours to develop for instance.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jmtulloss 16y ago
That's really cool. I think node.js is one of the most exciting new projects out there, and getting support for it into the cloud means uptake can be that much faster.
- swannodette 16y ago
  I'm excited about it. But I think the verdict's out on whether a medium to large Node.js program will not be a steaming spaghetti shaped pile of callbacks. Nothing I've seen coming from the Node.js community seems to address the fact that debugging/refactoring callback heavy code is hellish. Pretty please point me to literature/code that shows otherwise. For small nuggets of async goodness Node.js looks great.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - tlrobinson 16y ago
    I suspect we'll see people building better abstractions on top of the raw callback APIs Node provides. "Promises" (similar to deferreds/futures), um, promise to help with this.
    - thegoleffect 16y ago
      I think Promises were removed recently.
      - tlrobinson 16y ago
        Correct, but they can still be implemented on top of the callback based APIs.
        devinus 16y ago
        They already are: http://github.com/kriszyp/node-promise http://github.com/kriszyp/node-promise
        xal 16y ago
        promises need to be build into the language and all libraries have to be build with promises in mind for this to work. Look at io-lang's @ syntax or for a slightly different ( much better ) take, look at go's channels.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - tr4nslator 16y ago
    Actually, a bunch of us are working on taking the pain out of async programming. Here's my approach, using (fab)'s chained continuations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tr4nslator/4532445014/in/set-72157623883700702/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tr4nslator/4532445014/in/set-72...
    - swannodette 16y ago
      While this is cool, when you get to this point with JavaScript syntax why not just write your program in a Lisp like Clojure? People keep saying that JavaScript is good for asynchronous code, but that might not true at all. It's just that we JS hackers become very accustomed to a style of code that works great for simple user-driven events. In my experience this does not scale for much else. Maybe we can make it work, but I don't like what I've seen thus far. I want people to adopt a syntax that doesn't affect standard JS style: http://mootools.net/shell/q9ASd/28/ http://mootools.net/shell/q9ASd/28/
      - tr4nslator 16y ago
        Because I'd rather write my programs in a Lisp like Javascript?
  - felixge 16y ago
    Lessons learned from somebody who wrote a pretty large node app and is almost done with a rewrite: * Yes, async coding is hard. * Debugging can be tough, but good coding helps. * 95% of most node apps will be pure JS that does not perform any I/O. * Test driven development really shines in combination with node Make sure you keep that last point in mind when you build something with node. Reasoning about async code can be tricky, but TDD will force designs upon you that make it simple. --fg
ique 16y ago
This comes at a perfect time for me, I've been playing around a lot with Node.js lately and I've been looking around for a way to host it. I don't want to pay $20 a month for a VPS for an experimental fun-application, and http://elusivehippo.com/ http://elusivehippo.com/ just tells me that I'm not looking for some droids. Not only is real-time application support a huge step, but the way Heroku has listened to its customers here to implement Node.js support is amazing.
- prasanamishra 16y ago
  hmm It's worth give a try on heroku... I looked at http://elusivehippo.com/.. http://elusivehippo.com/... the price seems outrageous min $63 per month... is this the standard price??
  - thegoleffect 16y ago
    Sorry about that. ElusiveHippo originally started as a python deployment system for higut.com. I ended up needing to create a demo/portfolio site to show prospective employers how I could pick up new technology. So I very quickly wrote a node version, released it into the wild, and waited to see how far it would go on its own. Then, I disappeared to San Francisco for a week without checking back on it. None of the details on the site are standard or set in stone - all the pricing numbers were completely made up. Not only that, but there's actually no indication that the system works at all, is there? :) There are about 20 working alpha accounts in various hands, but it doesn't really matter if it worked or not - there's clearly been some effects ^_^. Again, sorry for any confusion. I could write a blog post about the details, the implementation, and the aftermath if people were interested. Then, people could fairly easily implement their own. I've converted many ex-PHP, ex-Rails, ex-Django coders to nodejs using this demo site!
- swah 16y ago
  A VPS could be easily shared if you have couple friends interested...
- samdk 16y ago
  http://prgmr.com/ http://prgmr.com/ doesn't have space available right now, but they have VPS plans starting at $5/month and I've heard good things about them from people on HN.
cmelbye 16y ago
Why don't they just remove the 30 second limit on web request execution time? I'd rather use Ruby/EventMachine than a complicated separate setup using both Ruby and node.js running on separate Heroku stacks.

123 points by jmonegro 16y ago

The big question is if Heroku will suddenly support a fairly large number of long-lived connections to a Node.js hosted app, and how pricing would work. Developing real-time apps and custom servers are how Node.js really shines. A WebSockets module took only a few hours to develop for instance.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jmtulloss 16y ago

That's really cool. I think node.js is one of the most exciting new projects out there, and getting support for it into the cloud means uptake can be that much faster.

swannodette 16y ago
I'm excited about it. But I think the verdict's out on whether a medium to large Node.js program will not be a steaming spaghetti shaped pile of callbacks. Nothing I've seen coming from the Node.js community seems to address the fact that debugging/refactoring callback heavy code is hellish. Pretty please point me to literature/code that shows otherwise. For small nuggets of async goodness Node.js looks great.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tlrobinson 16y ago
  I suspect we'll see people building better abstractions on top of the raw callback APIs Node provides. "Promises" (similar to deferreds/futures), um, promise to help with this.
  - thegoleffect 16y ago
    I think Promises were removed recently.
    - tlrobinson 16y ago
      Correct, but they can still be implemented on top of the callback based APIs.
      - devinus 16y ago
        They already are: http://github.com/kriszyp/node-promise http://github.com/kriszyp/node-promise
        xal 16y ago
        promises need to be build into the language and all libraries have to be build with promises in mind for this to work. Look at io-lang's @ syntax or for a slightly different ( much better ) take, look at go's channels.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tr4nslator 16y ago
  Actually, a bunch of us are working on taking the pain out of async programming. Here's my approach, using (fab)'s chained continuations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tr4nslator/4532445014/in/set-72157623883700702/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/tr4nslator/4532445014/in/set-72...
  - swannodette 16y ago
    While this is cool, when you get to this point with JavaScript syntax why not just write your program in a Lisp like Clojure? People keep saying that JavaScript is good for asynchronous code, but that might not true at all. It's just that we JS hackers become very accustomed to a style of code that works great for simple user-driven events. In my experience this does not scale for much else. Maybe we can make it work, but I don't like what I've seen thus far. I want people to adopt a syntax that doesn't affect standard JS style: http://mootools.net/shell/q9ASd/28/ http://mootools.net/shell/q9ASd/28/
    - tr4nslator 16y ago
      Because I'd rather write my programs in a Lisp like Javascript?
- felixge 16y ago
  Lessons learned from somebody who wrote a pretty large node app and is almost done with a rewrite: * Yes, async coding is hard. * Debugging can be tough, but good coding helps. * 95% of most node apps will be pure JS that does not perform any I/O. * Test driven development really shines in combination with node Make sure you keep that last point in mind when you build something with node. Reasoning about async code can be tricky, but TDD will force designs upon you that make it simple. --fg

ique 16y ago

This comes at a perfect time for me, I've been playing around a lot with Node.js lately and I've been looking around for a way to host it. I don't want to pay $20 a month for a VPS for an experimental fun-application, and http://elusivehippo.com/ http://elusivehippo.com/ just tells me that I'm not looking for some droids. Not only is real-time application support a huge step, but the way Heroku has listened to its customers here to implement Node.js support is amazing.

prasanamishra 16y ago
hmm It's worth give a try on heroku... I looked at http://elusivehippo.com/.. http://elusivehippo.com/... the price seems outrageous min $63 per month... is this the standard price??
- thegoleffect 16y ago
  Sorry about that. ElusiveHippo originally started as a python deployment system for higut.com. I ended up needing to create a demo/portfolio site to show prospective employers how I could pick up new technology. So I very quickly wrote a node version, released it into the wild, and waited to see how far it would go on its own. Then, I disappeared to San Francisco for a week without checking back on it. None of the details on the site are standard or set in stone - all the pricing numbers were completely made up. Not only that, but there's actually no indication that the system works at all, is there? :) There are about 20 working alpha accounts in various hands, but it doesn't really matter if it worked or not - there's clearly been some effects ^_^. Again, sorry for any confusion. I could write a blog post about the details, the implementation, and the aftermath if people were interested. Then, people could fairly easily implement their own. I've converted many ex-PHP, ex-Rails, ex-Django coders to nodejs using this demo site!
swah 16y ago
A VPS could be easily shared if you have couple friends interested...
samdk 16y ago
http://prgmr.com/ http://prgmr.com/ doesn't have space available right now, but they have VPS plans starting at $5/month and I've heard good things about them from people on HN.

cmelbye 16y ago

Why don't they just remove the 30 second limit on web request execution time? I'd rather use Ruby/EventMachine than a complicated separate setup using both Ruby and node.js running on separate Heroku stacks.