Terminal lets you dig into the underbelly of the operating system and issue text commands to your computer. Prerequisitesīefore you install Node.js and NPM you’ll first need to have some familiarity with the Mac Terminal application. In another article, I’ll show you Windows users how to install them on the Windows operating system. In this article, I’ll take you through the process of installing Node.js and NPM on a Mac using Homebrew. NPM is what’s called a “package manager.” NPM makes installing a tool like Grunt as easy as npm install -g grunt-cli.īut before you can use Node.js or NPM you need to install them - while the NodeJS website includes an installer, there’s a better way to install them on a Mac. While these tools run through the Node.js environment, you’ll use another tool, NPM, to install them. For example, Grunt is a popular tool used to automate common tasks like compiling Sass files to CSS, making JavaScript files smaller so they load in less time, and compressing images to smaller file size. Node.js is used to create fast web servers by companies like Walmart, eBay and Netflix.īut because Node.js can be used on your desktop computer, programmers have created useful Node-based tools that help with the process of building web sites. It’s known as a “JavaScript runtime environment” which simply means it lets you write JavaScript code that can run on your computer free of any web browser.

Node.js is a tool for building fast network applications.

But in the past couple of years, JavaScript has started to play a larger role outside of the browser, due in large part to Node.js. Because it’s built into most web browsers, programmers and web designers can use JavaScript to add interactive features to websites that reach billions of people. JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Try our program out with a free seven-day trial today. If you’re looking to take your JavaScript coding to another level, Treehouse offers unlimited-access courses in JavaScript (and many other subjects) starting at $25/month.

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