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doc: add initial list of technical priorities
Co-authored-by: Jean Burellier <[email protected]> Signed-off-by: Michael Dawson <[email protected]> PR-URL: #40235 Reviewed-By: James M Snell <[email protected]> Reviewed-By: Matteo Collina <[email protected]> Reviewed-By: Tobias Nießen <[email protected]> Reviewed-By: Colin Ihrig <[email protected]> Reviewed-By: Gireesh Punathil <[email protected]> Reviewed-By: Voltrex <[email protected]>
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| # Technical Priorities | ||
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| This list represents the current view of key technical priorities recognized | ||
| by the project as important to ensure the ongoing success of Node.js. | ||
| It is based on an understanding of the Node.js | ||
| [constituencies](https://github.com/nodejs/next-10/blob/main/CONSTITUENCIES.md) | ||
| and their [needs](https://github.com/nodejs/next-10/blob/main/CONSTITUENCY-NEEDS.md). | ||
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| The initial version was created based on the work of the | ||
| [Next-10 team](https://github.com/nodejs/next-10) and the | ||
| [mini-summit](https://github.com/nodejs/next-10/issues/76) | ||
| on August 5th 2021. | ||
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| They will be updated regularly and will be reviewed by the next-10 team | ||
| and the TSC on a 6-month basis. | ||
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| ## Modern HTTP | ||
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| Base HTTP support is a key component of modern cloud-native applications | ||
| and built-in support was part of what made Node.js a success in the first | ||
| 10 years. The current implementation is hard to support and a common | ||
| source of vulnerabilities. We must work towards an | ||
| implementation which is easier to support and makes it easier to integrate | ||
| the new HTTP versions (HTTP3, QUIC) and to support efficient | ||
| implementations of different versions concurrently. | ||
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| ## Suitable types for end-users | ||
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| Using typings with JavaScript can allow a richer experience when using Visual | ||
| Studio Code (or any other IDEs) environments, more complete documentation | ||
| of APIs and the ability to identify and resolve errors earlier in the | ||
| development process. These benefits are important to a large number of Node.js | ||
| developers (maybe 50%). Further typing support may be important | ||
| to enterprises that are considering expanding their preferred platforms to | ||
| include Node.js. It is, therefore, important that the Node.js project work | ||
| to ensure there are good typings available for the public Node.js APIs. | ||
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| ## Documentation | ||
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| The current documentation is great for experienced developers or people | ||
| who are aware of what they are looking for. On the other hand, for | ||
| beginners this documentation can be quite hard to read and finding the | ||
| desired information is difficult. We must have documentation | ||
| that is suitable for beginners to continue the rapid growth in use. | ||
| This documentation should include more concrete examples and a learning | ||
| path for newcomers. | ||
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| ## WebAssembly | ||
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| The use of WebAssembly has been growing over the last few years. | ||
| To ensure Node.js continues to be part of solutions where a | ||
| subset of the solution needs the performance that WebAssembly can | ||
| deliver, Node.js must provide good support for running | ||
| WebAssembly components along with the JavaScript that makes up the rest | ||
| of the solution. This includes implementations of “host” APIs like WASI. | ||
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| ## ESM | ||
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| The CommonJS module system was one of the key components that led to the success | ||
| of Node.js in its first 10 years. ESM is the standard that has been adopted as | ||
| the equivalent in the broader JavaScript ecosystem and Node.js must continue to | ||
| develop and improve its ESM implementation to stay relevant and ensure | ||
| continued growth for the next 10 years. | ||
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| ## Support for features from the latest ECMAScript spec | ||
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| JavaScript developers are a fast moving group and need/want support for new ES | ||
| JavaScript features in a timely manner. Node.js must continue | ||
| to provide support for up to date ES versions to remain the runtime | ||
| of choice and to ensure its continued growth for the next 10 years. | ||
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| ## Observability | ||
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| The ability to investigate and resolve problems that occur in applications | ||
| running in production is crucial for organizations. Tools that allow | ||
| people to observe the current and past operation of the application are | ||
| needed to support that need. It is therefore important that the Node.js | ||
| project work towards well understood and defined processes for observing | ||
| the behavior of Node.js applications as well as ensuring there are well | ||
| supported tools to implement those processes (logging, metrics and tracing). | ||
| This includes support within the Node.js runtime itself (for example | ||
| generating headumps, performance metrics, etc.) as well as support for | ||
| applications on top of the runtime. In addition, it is also important to clearly | ||
| document the use cases, problem determination methods and best | ||
| practices for those tools. | ||
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| ## Permissions/policies/security model | ||
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| Organizations will only choose technologies that allow them to sufficiently | ||
| manage risk in their production deployments. For Node.js to | ||
| continue its growth in product/enterprise deployments we need to ensure | ||
| that we help them manage that risk. We must have a well-documented | ||
| security model so that consumers understand what threats are/are | ||
| not addressed by the Node.js runtime. We also need to provide | ||
| functions/features which help them limit attack surfaces even if it does | ||
| not result in 100% protection as this will still help organizations | ||
| manage their overall risk level. | ||
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| ## Better multithreaded support | ||
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| Today's servers support multiple threads of concurrent execution. | ||
| Node.js deployments must be able to make full and efficient | ||
| use of the available resources. The right answer is often to use | ||
| technologies like containers to run multiple single threaded Node.js | ||
| instances on the same server. However, there are important use cases | ||
| where a single Node.js instance needs to make use of multiple threads | ||
| to achieve a performant and efficient implementation. In addition, | ||
| even when a Node.js instance only needs to consume a single thread to | ||
| complete its work there can be issues. If that work is long running, | ||
| blocking the event loop will interfere with other supporting work like | ||
| metrics gathering and health checks. Node.js | ||
| must provide good support for using multiple threads | ||
| to ensure the continued growth and success of Node.js. | ||
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| ## Single Executable Applications | ||
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| Node.js often loses out to other runtimes/languages in cases where | ||
| being able to package a single, executable application simplifies | ||
| distribution and management of what needs to be delivered. While there are | ||
| components/approaches for doing this, they need to be better | ||
| documented and evangelized so that this is not seen as a barrier | ||
| for using Node.js in these situations. This is important to support | ||
| the expansion of where/when Node.js is used in building solutions. |