Switching from Ruby to NodeJS

Part-1

Node vs. Rails. As a student at the Flatiron School, my intial exposure to server-side web programming (indeed, programming in general) came through Ruby, and eventually, Ruby on Rails. I liked it, and found it plenty challenging, but soon after I began learning JavaScript, and found the learning curve from Ruby to JavaScript steeper than the one from no coding experience to Ruby. As I began learning various front-end JavaScript frameworks (Jquery, React), and expanding my knowledge of the language, I found myself making great strides as a developer. While Ruby had served as a great introduction to programming, it was simply too abstract and high-level to give me an in-depth understanding of many topics that I knew would be essential for a career as a programmer.

So, as I began to write app after app with a front-end written in some JavaScript framework or library and a backend written in Rails, I intuitively knew that there were gaps developing in my backend abilities. I vowed that before long, I would learn another backend framework, in another language, to complement and expand my understanding of the server-side. Around this time, I began hearing more and more about Node.js, and while applying to companies, saw it come up again and again as a required or preferred skill. Since I enjoyed programming in React so much, I figured that learning node would be the perfect way to continue my path as a developer.

Let’s see how it goes in the next weeks.