Backend Languages & Runtimes
Languages
Section titled “Languages”Backend development can be done in many programming languages. Here are some of the most popular ones:
- JavaScript: Originally for frontend, but with Node.js, it’s very popular for backend too.
- PHP: One of the oldest web languages. Used by WordPress.
- Java: Strong, typed language. Very popular in big companies (enterprise).
- Python: Easy to learn, great for data science and AI backends.
- C#: Used with Microsoft’s .NET framework.
- Go (Golang): Created by Google. Very fast and good for high performance.
- Rust: Focuses on safety and speed. Harder to learn but very efficient.
- Ruby: Known for the “Ruby on Rails” framework which helps build apps quickly.
Runtimes
Section titled “Runtimes”A Runtime is the environment where your code runs.
Node.js
Section titled “Node.js”Focus Topic
Node.js is a runtime environment that lets you run JavaScript outside the browser (on the server). It is built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.
- Non-blocking I/O: It doesn’t wait for tasks (like reading a file) to finish before moving to the next one. This makes it very fast for handling many connections at once.
- Event-Driven: It uses events (like a user click or a data arrival) to trigger code.
- Single-Threaded: It uses one main thread to handle requests, but delegates heavy work to the system so it doesn’t get stuck.
Other Runtimes
Section titled “Other Runtimes”- Bun: A newer, faster runtime that aims to replace Node.js. It includes a bundler and test runner.
- Deno: Created by the same person who made Node.js, to fix some of its design issues.