In the lead-up to the stable release of Node.js version 1.0, Joyent—the main developer behind the open-source JavaScript implementation—is taking Node.js on a road trip.

At the “Node.js on the Road” event in New York City last night, Joyent developers and Node.js community members talked about the new features in the forthcoming 0.12 release, and shared experiences about implementing and running the platform. The night’s featured speaker, Node.js project lead T.J. Fontaine, laid out the biggest changes “Noders” can expect from version 0.12, including a stable C add-on layer, binary module identification, and dynamic tracing.

“0.12 will be released imminently, and then beyond that we’re using this roadshow to make sure we understand what features need to be going into the [1.0] release,” Fontaine told SD Times before the event. “The API we have is here, solid and will work for you in 1.0 and beyond. We’re going to add a stable add-on layer, a stable C API layer…to compile binary add-ons once without recompiling.”



Joyent CTO Bryan Cantrill at the Node.js on the Road event in New York City on April 24

During his presentation, Fontaine also talked about dynamic, user-defined tracing that comes with the Node.js JavaScript API, along with an asynchronous listener, a tracing interface, and V8 engine probes. He also mentioned identification features for particular binary modules in the Node.js community.

“We’re adding more features as far as identifying people who have binary modules out there in the ecosystem that are really popular,” Fontaine said. “If they fit the model for Node, we’ll bring them in so people don’t have to worry about compiling those extra dependencies. Something like FFI [foreign function interface] might end up in Node as a first-class feature for people who want to bind to native libraries with just JavaScript, and not have to write binary modules.”

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Fontaine also made a point of stating that Node.js 0.12 is the first version where every platform is supported with all tests passing on Linux and Windows, and that Node.js escaped the Heartbleed bug due a recently revamped TLS/cryptographic scheme with consistent error handling.

On open-source, V8 and the future of Node

In the pre-event interview, Fontaine also spoke about Joyent’s unique symbiotic relationship with the Google V8 team in the release and update process.