Install on Windows
Node.js runs JavaScript on the server (and in scripts), not only in the browser. Chrome’s V8 engine + an event loop. You write hello.js, run node hello.js, and it prints. No Apache required for a tiny API.
It is not a new language. It is JavaScript plus modules like fs, http, path. npm installs extra packages. Good for APIs, tooling, realtime chat. CPU-heavy number crunching can block the event loop — offload it.
Trap: ‘Node is a language’. Trap: ‘Node replaces the browser’. The browser still runs JS for pages. Node runs JS on the machine.
hello.js
│ node
▼
V8 + event loop
│
▼
console / HTTPExam tip
JS on the server. node hello.js. Not a new language.