Chapter 13. Beyond web servers

This chapter covers

  • Using Socket.IO for real-time cross-browser communication
  • Implementing TCP/IP networking
  • Using Node’s APIs to interact with the operating system
  • Developing and working with command-line tools

Node’s asynchronous nature enables you to perform I/O-intensive tasks that might be difficult or inefficient in a synchronous environment. We’ve mostly covered HTTP applications in this book, but what about other kinds of applications? What else is Node useful for?

The truth is that Node is tailored not only for HTTP, but for all kinds of general-purpose I/O. This means you can build practically any type of application using Node, such as command-line programs, system administration scripts, and ...

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