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Comment by ffsm8 | Hacker News Reader

> could support realtime experiences

Node supports realtime applications? Really? Isn't it garbage collected? Or does the term mean something different in nodejs? I've only come to know the term in the context of time guarantees (i.e. if it's scheduled to run in x, it is guaranteed to run at that time) and that shouldn't apply to nodejs I think? When you schedule something there, I believe it'll run on the first free thread after the timer relapsed - which entirely depends on the load of the system

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Theres discussion distinguishing hard real-time (what you describe), firm real-time (infrequent deadline misses are problematic but managable), and soft real-time (missing deadlines aren't a big deal). Node does a pretty hood job with soft real-time.

What games do you know that are hard or firm real-time?

Real-time in this context is more like real-time communication rather than process scheduling.

I think we've diverged from the game context, towards discussion "universal brain reorganizing technologies", nodejs being considered one, and what real-time means in the context of node.

That said, real-time communication _is_ a soft real-time system.

Ya'all are very strict in your definitions then. My definition is "does it feel laggy" or "do I have to walk away and come back when this thing is done".

Basically like 24 FPS or higher is real-time. Even that'd be laggy for a game but not unplayable. I choose this specifically because that's what movies typically use and they're very watchable.

That definition of real time is not good enough for things like pacemakers, where real time really does actually matter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_computing

Hard real time (or just "real time" in firmware/hardware contexts) is effectively a term of art. One that's been increasingly watered down by the rest of the industry.

Strict definitions matter when system failure == pacemaker missing a beat or train signalling system drives a freight train into the back of 400 passengers.

But in gaming, real time means something different: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timekeeping_in_games#Real-time

Context matters.

In game development we still care about the distinction between soft and hard realtime. Almost all games are soft realtime, even if the gameplay itself is turned based as we're processing user input, updating UI, animating things and so on.

A lot of gameplay elements are firm realtime in practice, not unlike something like video decoding.

Realtime in this context probably just refers to the end user experience — multiple people connecting over web sockets to the same backend and seeing the same thing in “real time”.

Did they simply mean "non blocking?"

you're making the common mistake of assuming js devs know anything about core concepts.

they are vibe coding since the beginning.

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