Bringing Node.js to Windows 10 IoT Core

Microsoft says it is bringing Node.js to Windows 10 IoT Core by using the built-in Chakra engine instead of V8. The goal is to make Node.js work on Windows on ARM devices, reduce disk footprint, and give Node.js apps first-class UWP support.

Reading notes

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• Microsoft frames the work as part of its investment in IoT and says Windows 10 IoT will run connected devices such as gateways, point-of-sale systems, robotics, and medical devices.
• The project addresses a gap where developers cannot use Node.js on Windows on ARM devices.
• The chosen path is a wrapper between Chakra JSRT hosting APIs and the V8 hosting APIs used by Node.js v0.12.
• The public code is available on GitHub.
• The changes are intended to let Node.js run as a classic Windows application on Windows 10 devices.
• The changes also let Node.js run inside a Universal Windows application and access UWP APIs.
• Visual Studio debugging for Node.js apps on Windows 10 is part of the support.
• The post says the work is still in early development and that a pull request to Node.js will come after the code is stabilized.
• For getting started, the post points to a Classic Windows app sample that displays system memory usage through a native addon.
• The post also describes a Universal Windows app template from NTVS IoT Extension Beta, which installs the Chakra-based Node.js build and the uwp package.
• The uwp module is used with require and uwp.projectNamespace to access UWP namespaces from Node.js.
• A sample shows toggling an LED by writing to a GPIO pin from a Node.js app.
• Remote debugging is described as working through Visual Studio with the device IP configured in the project settings.
• The post closes by noting known issues, including incomplete support for VM module and packages such as serialport and firmata, and asks for community feedback.