Io.js is one step closer to ARM64 | Hacker News Reader

Io.js is one step closer to ARM64

github.com

46 pointsandrewbarba13 comments

The title is misleading (currently: Io.js is one step closer to ARM). io.js already supports armv{6,7}. You can download these binaries here: https://iojs.org/dist/v1.4.2/

This change introduces preliminary support for armv8 (aarch64) which was merged to pave way for the upcoming upgrade to openssl 1.0.2 -- well, at least merged at this point in time.

The "bigger news" is that ARM has contacted io.js, offering additional architectures for io.js to build on (where specifically armv8 was introduced). Read more here: https://github.com/iojs/evangelism/blob/master/weekly-update...

Thank you for the "currently" parenthetical! By the time I saw this, the tile had already been changed to "Io.js is one step closer to ARM64", and I really hate reading a bunch of comments about an inaccurate title without actually being able to see what it used to be.

Does the new relationship between Io.js and ARM mean we'll finally have GNU+Linux packages for recent releases?

I was unable to build node from source on Ubuntu, and the best I can do is a PPA update which gives me v0.10.36 instead of 0.10.25 from the default repositories.

It's a shame to be so limited while I can very easily install the latest version on the proprietary OS.

what that brings to the table?

Well there is a lot of debate over the fork of Node.js and so far there hasn't been a ground breaking reason for it other than newer versions of popular dependencies and faster release cycles. I think supporting new architectures (specifically mobile ones) is a big deal for the fork and an important distinction from Node.

Isn't this bad for the community? If they diverge more there is going to be a bigger split that hurts everyone.

Why would it? I have a choice of hundreds of languages and frameworks. Objective C didn't make C worse, nor did C++, C# or countless other languages that don't start with a C. In truth, they all keep making each other better with competing features.

There's a definite cost to forking, and whether the benefits justify the cost comes down to whether you believe the pre fork project was being shepherded well prior to the fork. It's a nuclear option to be sure, but it is needed from time to time.

Mobile ... it brings mobile to the table.

What does that bring to the table? (Not trying to be facetious, just not sure what that would buy me)

The evangelism update offers "Internet of Things" possibilities as one good reason for this development: https://github.com/iojs/evangelism/blob/master/weekly-update...

Current mobile processors are fairly powerful; some of them are faster than low end notebooks. I'd love to be able to test apps on the tablet and plug the tablet/phone to a monitor and keyboard to write code. Given that I write a lot of server-side JS code, iojs working on ARM64 is exciting to me.

more information here: https://medium.com/node-js-javascript/io-js-week-of-february...

armv8 / aarch64 is interesting on the (low power) server side.

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