Node.js adoption has seen a meteoric rise in the past few years, and as it’s gotten larger we’ve seen both growing pains as well as the framework settling into more stable hands.
Now, the Node.js Foundation has announced that it plans to bring one of the framework’s most popular third-party packages, Express, into the foundation for incubation.
The Node.js foundation is an impartial organization hosted by The Linux Foundation to support the future growth of the framework without any particular party having ownership over it.
Express is a simple framework used for building Web and mobile apps, but it’s been downloaded more 53 million times in just two years as it’s essential for the majority of Node-based apps — often it’s the starting point for new Node.js users.
A number of other frameworks rely on Express, like Kraken and Sails, so given its importance the foundation decided to bring it under its banner to allow better governance and ensure it’s a dependable choice long term.
“The work around developing and maintaining Express has been a tremendous asset to the community” said Rod Vagg, Chief Node Officer at NodeSource and Technical Steering Committee Director of the Node.js Foundation, continuing saying that the project will “will get a huge boost through open governance.”
A number of questions swirled when IBM acquired StrongLoop, the company that maintained Express, leaving developers wondering if the framework might die or become proprietary. The company is onboard with the proposal and is providing the assets related to Express to the foundation.
As an incubated project, Express will receive mentorship directly from the foundation, but will remain a separate entity. It’ll receive a “Express Technical Committee” made up of contributors and two mentors who will help execute future plans.
The news is a great move for the community which will help ensure the package has a long, bright future and should help reassure developers that were hesitant to commit to a package that could have been in flux.
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