Writing and running scripts with Node.js

For us to become full-stack developers, it is important to get familiar with backend technologies. As we are already familiar with JavaScript from writing frontend applications, we can use Node.js to develop backend services using JavaScript. In this section, we are going to create our first simple Node.js script to get familiar with the differences between backend scripts and frontend code.

Similarities and differences between JavaScript in the browser and in Node.js

Node.js is built on V8, the JavaScript engine used by Chromium-based browsers (Google Chrome, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge). As such, JavaScript code will run the same way in the browser and Node.js. However, there are some differences, specifically in the environment. The environment is built on top of the engine and allows us to render something on a website in the browser (using the document and window objects). In Node.js, there are certain modules provided...