In October, Node.js foundation released Node.js 13, much to the joy of Node.js developers across the globe. This release was significant because it marked the transition of Node.js 12 to Long Term Support (LTS). So, even though the new release from Node.js is now the current release, it is not recommended for production used by top UI UX design firms and others since Node.js 12 is still the Long Term Support (LTS) release.
As the latest version of the JavaScript runtime, Node.js 13 brings with it various improvements including programming enhancements, worker threads, as well as internationalization capabilities.
Although Node.js 13 may not be used by developers for production, it is still important when it comes to building and testing the latest features, as it allows them to see whether their applications and packages will be compatible with future versions that are yet to be developed.
In short, the new release is capable of delivering faster startup as well as improved default heap limits. It also includes updates to TLS, V8 engine and Http, and new features such as bundled heap dump capability, diagnostic report, and updates to N-API, Worker Threads, etc.
Below, we take a look at the key features that the latest release Node.js 13 brings:
Stable worker threads
With the new release, worker threads that are used for performing CPU-intensive JavaScript operations are stable in not only Node.js 13 but also in Node.js 12. Even though Node.js performs well enough with the single-threaded event loop, results could be improved with additional threads in some use-cases, and the new release bridges this gap.
V8 is upgraded to V8 7.8
The Google V8 JavaScript engine that Node.js runs on has been updated to the latest version, which is V8 7.8. The new and improved engine means that you can expect improvements in performance such as memory usage, object destructuring, as well as WebAssembly startup time.
Changes in HTTP communications
With the new Node.js release, data will not be emitted after a socket error anymore when it comes to HTTP communications. The legacy HTTP parser has also been removed, and the runtime of the request. connection and response.connection properties have been deprecated. Instead, request. socket and response.socket should be used.
Full ICU is enabled by default
Full-ICU (International Components for Unicode) is available as default with the new release. This means that Node.js now supports hundreds of other local languages, which will result in the simplification of deployment and deployment of apps for non-English deployments.
