Javascript as a language is often sullied and bullied, but new technologies like node.js and coffescript, as well as the impending death of IE7, are changing that. For the past year I've been writing and launching websites built on node.js which run javascript on the server. This presentation is a update from the front lines of what using javascript for nearly everything is like. The talk is about Javascript as a programming language doing heavy lifting on a daily basis. I'll talk about my experiences using it everyday, what is hard in javascript, what is missing from the language, and how people are trying to fix it. I'll cover the lessons I've learned from the server-side which have changed how I use javascript client side. I'll look in depth at node.js, at its 'event loop' execution model, how async can make you crazy, and how to step back from the edge. I'll talk about how javascript applications on the server work, how they scale, and how they compare to using php. I'll talk about the things that are easy in node.js and really hard in php.

Questions answered by this session:
What do I need to know about javascript that jQuery won't teach me?
What does node.js do exactly?
Why would you use node.js for something?
What does deploying node.js look like?
I've tried node.js. How am I supposed to avoid the async callback hell?