Why Nodejs has versions 4.x, 5.x, 6.x and 0.1x.x, etc

Asked

Viewed 501 times

8

Why Node.js exists in versions 4, 5 and 6, but also exists in versions 0.x.x. Or perhaps, what are the differences between the versions x.x and 0.x.x?

node.js socket.io

1 answer

12


There are two points to make in answer to your question.

  • why the jump of 0.x.x for 4.x.x
  • why almost simultaneous versions 4, 5 and 6

Node.js when it was launched brought together many of the programming stars of the time. Like many experimental/new technologies there were many possible paths and people with different ideas. The community could not understand each other and two models of "governance" were desired:

"open governance model" as opposed to corporate Stewardship

That is, a more formal group with strict rules and another with more cooperative and flexible spirit. This led to a break and the community was born io js..

The new, more flexible community developed faster and released own versions of Node.js (io.js).

After a while both communities matured and looked at each other again and identified more value in unification. And so it happened, in 2015 the very active community of Fork io.js rejoined the Node.js community, aware of the advantages of re-uniting.

This generated some challenges to versioning and it was decided that the versions io.js would have their own numbers, then the versions stayed like this:

Old node: versions 0.1.x to 0.12.x
io js.: versions 1.x. x to 3.x. x
Reunified node: versions 4.x. x onward

How Node Versioning Works?

The Node versions are LTS* interleaved, that is to say the even versions are stable and the odd versions are unstable, experimental and developmental.

The versions 0.4 and 0.10 were the most used maybe, and stable. Nowadays it is possible to download the versions 4.x.x and 6.x.x. The version 5.x.x is not available on the home page not to fool those who don’t know this. The version 4.x.x received an initial support of 30 months, while the version 5.x.x received a support only of 8 months, more or less until the release of the stable version 6.0.0

Notes:

LTS - long term support (long support)

Browser other questions tagged node.js socket.io

You are not signed in. Login or sign up in order to post.