Node.js News for 2017

npm version 5 has major usability bug with installing packages locally

(Tue Nov 28 2017 00:00:00 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time))

With npm version 5 we gained a lot of welcome new features and performance improvements. I've been happily using npm@5 for several months, but recently discovered a major problem that dramatically affects my workflow. When I'm updating a package, I want to test that package locally WITHOUT pushing changes to the Git repository. To do so, I found it best to install that package into another project to test/run the code. This worked great with npm versions prior to npm@5, but now I have two major problems. First, npm modifies the package.json to insert a "file:" dependency, overwriting the existing dependency, and second it makes a symlink to the package rather than doing a proper installation.

Node.js toolkit for mobile iOS and Android devices announced by Janea Systems

(Wed Oct 25 2017 00:00:00 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time))

Node.js is no longer limited to server-side application development. The Electron platform, popularized through the Atom editor, is an excellent way to develop desktop applications. Now it's possible to target mobile devices running either iOS or Android using a Node.js implementation. Janea Systems is offering a "library" for both iOS and Android systems allowing an app to host a full Node.js execution environment, and offering UI implementation either with Cordova or React Native.