joyent/node — Issue #2593: Adding common problems FAQ to documentation
Author: Raynos
Created: 2012-01-22 20:38:32+00:00
State: open

There are a few common problems that crop up frequently and have been solved by the community.

Newcomers to node would not know of these problems or their solutions and would either

- gain a negative first impression and leave node. (this is a problem we want to avoid)
- write and release bad code because he doesn't know better. (this is about smoothing out the difficulty of porting web programming mentalities that do not work with node.js)

[Related G+ post][1]

The idea is that node would host descriptions and solutions of these common problems on the documentation page for maximum visibility. These descriptions and solutions do however have to be neutral and not opinionated.

Potential common problems

- Flow control. Why do you need it? What are common solutions to it?
- Asynchronous, why you can't return from a callback. (You would be suprised how common this problem is in new comers. Questions are [asked almost hourly][2] on stackoverflow about this very problem)
- How to not block event loops and maximize usage of asynchronous IO.

I think these issues fall under

> common problems you wish we told you the solution to before you started working with node.js

and it would be worthwhile to identify topics we can talk about neutrally and host "solutions"/"discussions" about on the node.js documentation website.

As a sidenote if we can identify whether we want to add this section and what content should go into it, I would be happy to write said content.

[1]: https://plus.google.com/u/0/112405432714473726304/posts/e3gqtxACPK5
[2]: http://stackoverflow.com/a/8964039/419970