Apart from this being of questionable usability, why do people feel the need to solve every problem with (Node)JS? I can think about a ton of languages better suited for systems programming at the top of the hat.
As a web developer, I know JavaScript very well. I have already encountered thousands of its idiosyncrasies and I am very good at making it work for me.
Therefore any tool written in JavaScript is automatically easy for me to understand and modify. If that tool could have been more elegantly written in another language, that's awesome for people who know that other language, but it's irrelevant to me. Even if I kind of know my way around the other language, I'm never going to be as effective with it as the language I use every day. And a lot of people use JavaScript every day. This is the reason why people feel the need to solve problems in JavaScript.
I understand people feel the need to solve problems in JS because they're scared or inconvenienced by learning a new programming language.
But why not learn a new language? Having a working knowledge of C won't kill you.
edit: could you explain how JS is the most widely used language in the world?
I do have some knowledge of C, and I could learn more. But unless I change career, I'll always be faster and more effective in JavaScript because I think in it all day, so I'll almost always choose JS over C. I'm not disparaging anyone who uses C, just answering @faaef's question about why people "feel the need" to make everything in JavaScript – because they can, they happen to know JS very well, and because there's automatically a huge potential contributor base.
> could you explain how JS is the most widely used language in the world?
I don't know, but I assumed it's the most widely used because websites :) Also it's the most popular language on GitHub
Like this one. Like the POSIX API that is actually compatible with other applications.
And by that definition of used, C and Java are pretty strong competitors, seeing as every SIM card and Bluray player and so many more run Java... and then there's Linux and its embedded RTOS cousins, etc., etc., that are written in C or C++. I think embedded devices beat out JS pretty well.
Apart from that, it's great to have a favorite language, but choosing a hammer for every task does not seem like the mark of a great craftsman for me.
Perl/Python/PHP/Ruby: Generally 10x or more slower than V8 Node.js, plus global interpreter lock = automatic no.
C/C++/etc? Fast, but too complex to work with build system / platform compat / 3rd party modules = generally no.
Java? Way too slow startup time; JVM install for users painful = automatic no
Scala/Clojure/etc: Fine languages but same practical problems as JVM languages = automatic no.
Go? Probably nice, but I just don't know it = maybe
Node.js: Fairly fast, easy to debug, fast startup time, easy to use 3rd party code = yes
Rust: safe, C perf, and easy to build and use 3rd party modules via Cargo = yes
As long as IO is your bottleneck the GIL shouldn't be much of a problem. And Python (and I'm sure Ruby, too) has excellent async support.
Not saying Node.js isn't useful, but I wouldn't automatically say no to Python or Ruby.