3 ms·

I guess the obvious question is: what does this offer that you don't get from connect/express?

by moomin 15y ago

bfm 15y ago
From the official announcement https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/nodejs/fqBTNLwhEAI https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/nodejs/fqBTNLwhEAI The main advantages/differences over Connect/Express at this point are: - Patterned after WSGI/Rack. This implies some significant differences in the API. - Built on node 0.4; takes full advantage of streams. - Built-in support for streaming multipart parsing/file uploading (uses node-formidable's parser). - Built-in support for gzip encoding, URL rewriting, and URL mapping. - RFC-compliant support for content negotiation using the Accept, Accept-Language, Accept-Encoding, and Accept-Charset HTTP headers. - A specification with middleware to enforce it.
- dreamdu5t 15y ago
  So nothing? Streams, multiparts, gzip, that is all in Connect/Express. I'm sorry but adhering to some spec that few people use or care about is hardly an advantage over Connect. Wouldn't it be trivial for Connect to adhere to the spec anyways? tjholowaychuk has done extensive testing/benchmarking of Connect/Express. I'd really like to see some benchmarks and code coverage.
theyCallMeSwift 15y ago
+1 for wanting a solid answer to this question
- mjijackson 15y ago
  Connect/Express do little more than set up a callback chain for you that passes along the request and response objects it received from node's request listener. Strata gives you a sane environment modeled after the WSGI/Rack/CGI model, which has been the backbone of web servers for years. Also, Strata's API matches the WSGI/Rack model. This may seem small, but in practice it's a significant benefit. Add to that the list of features cited in the release email, including native support for streams in node 0.4.
  - dreamdu5t 15y ago
    What can't you do with streams in Connect/Express?
    - tjholowaychuk 15y ago
      It's easier with Connect/Express haha, stream.pipe(res) vs callback(200, {}, stream). We've been down this road in the past, in fact Express started out a bit more like this, abstracting away node's req/res, but it's a leaky abstraction that doesn't really provide any real benefit. As far as "filtering" on streams etc, this is something node core should provide (and will be shortly) so it's irrelevant in that respect as well
tjholowaychuk 15y ago
you get leaky abstractions that have already been proven to fail! :)
- mjijackson 15y ago
  Proven to fail? You haven't proven anything. Abstractions can be useful. You use lots of them every day. Node itself is an abstraction.
  - tjholowaychuk 15y ago
    you're certainly welcome to think what you like, I dont have time to argue

I guess the obvious question is: what does this offer that you don't get from connect/express?

by moomin 15y ago

I guess the obvious question is: what does this offer that you don't get from connect/express?

bfm 15y ago

From the official announcement https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/nodejs/fqBTNLwhEAI https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/nodejs/fqBTNLwhEAI The main advantages/differences over Connect/Express at this point are: - Patterned after WSGI/Rack. This implies some significant differences in the API. - Built on node 0.4; takes full advantage of streams. - Built-in support for streaming multipart parsing/file uploading (uses node-formidable's parser). - Built-in support for gzip encoding, URL rewriting, and URL mapping. - RFC-compliant support for content negotiation using the Accept, Accept-Language, Accept-Encoding, and Accept-Charset HTTP headers. - A specification with middleware to enforce it.

dreamdu5t 15y ago
So nothing? Streams, multiparts, gzip, that is all in Connect/Express. I'm sorry but adhering to some spec that few people use or care about is hardly an advantage over Connect. Wouldn't it be trivial for Connect to adhere to the spec anyways? tjholowaychuk has done extensive testing/benchmarking of Connect/Express. I'd really like to see some benchmarks and code coverage.

theyCallMeSwift 15y ago

+1 for wanting a solid answer to this question

mjijackson 15y ago
Connect/Express do little more than set up a callback chain for you that passes along the request and response objects it received from node's request listener. Strata gives you a sane environment modeled after the WSGI/Rack/CGI model, which has been the backbone of web servers for years. Also, Strata's API matches the WSGI/Rack model. This may seem small, but in practice it's a significant benefit. Add to that the list of features cited in the release email, including native support for streams in node 0.4.
- dreamdu5t 15y ago
  What can't you do with streams in Connect/Express?
  - tjholowaychuk 15y ago
    It's easier with Connect/Express haha, stream.pipe(res) vs callback(200, {}, stream). We've been down this road in the past, in fact Express started out a bit more like this, abstracting away node's req/res, but it's a leaky abstraction that doesn't really provide any real benefit. As far as "filtering" on streams etc, this is something node core should provide (and will be shortly) so it's irrelevant in that respect as well

tjholowaychuk 15y ago

you get leaky abstractions that have already been proven to fail! :)

mjijackson 15y ago
Proven to fail? You haven't proven anything. Abstractions can be useful. You use lots of them every day. Node itself is an abstraction.
- tjholowaychuk 15y ago
  you're certainly welcome to think what you like, I dont have time to argue