14 DAY TRIAL // The Node.js team has announced the immediate availability of the Node.js 5.0.0 project, a server-side implementation of the JavaScript programming language (in layman's terms).
This might seem a quick release, judging that only a month back the project released version 4.0.0, but don't jump to any conclusions. Node.js 5 is not an LTS (Long-Term Support) release and is to be considered an intermediary version for Node.js 6, the project's next LTS, set to be launched in April 2016.
Node LTS releases normally receive updates and security patches from Node's staff for the next 30 months of their lifecycle, while Node 5 is set to be supported only for the next 8.
As Node's team explains it, developers looking for stability should generally stick with Node 4 on their production environments, and Node 5 should serve as a testbed for new JavaScript features, and the upcoming Node 6 version.
Developers can use Node 5 for production environments only if migrating their apps does not require major modifications to the code. Taking a look at the changelog, we see a lot of breaking changes between Node 4 and 5, and this scenario looks unlikely.
In other JavaScript news...
Edge.js, a JavaScript project that lets developers mix C# and Node.js code inside Node.js, .NET, and Mono-based apps, has reached version 4.0.0 and is as mature as ever.
CKEditor, one of the first and most used JavaScript-based WYSIWYG editors, has announced version 5.0. The team has detailed their timeline, architecture, and upcoming plans and expectations on their blog.
Babel, the ES6 to ES5 JavaScript compiler that allows developers to use the latest JavaScript features with current browsers, has announced version 6.0.0.
SAP, one of The Node.js Foundation's Silver Members, has announced plans to support Node.js with its SAP HANA database in its upcoming SP11 release.