In this volume of Need to Node, you can find the latest news on the Node.js v13.11.0 (Current) Release, npm is joining GitHub and Three Things You Didn't Know You Could Do with npm Scripts.

Need to Node is a weekly bulletin designed to keep you up to date with the latest news on the Node.js project, events and awesome articles. You are always welcome to collaborate and participate. Please let us know if we missed a piece of content you think should be included!

What’s New in the Node.js Project

• 🚨 npm is joining GitHub 🙀. On March 16th, Nat Friedman CEO of GitHub, announced that an agreement to acquire npm has been signed. The central focus of the acquisition will be to (1) invest in the registry infrastructure and platform, (2) improve the core experience and (3) engage with the community. Check out the blog post!
• The (Ongoing) Node 14.0 Pull Request Check out what’s going on with the road to Node 14! The cut-off date for new features making it into this release is coming up later this month with the eventual release being due in late April (and running V8 8.1).
• Node 13.11.0 (Current) Released. A minor release that includes updates in async_hooks, cli and fs.

Awesome Articles, Links, and Resources

• Building a GitHub App With Node.js. In this article you can learn how to build a GitHub app that enforces pinning exact dependencies in your package.json: no ^, >=, or * required. Exciting! By Valeri Karpov
• Three Things You Didn't Know You Could Do with npm Scripts. This article covers the basics of using npm scripts along with three features that are not widely used, but might find useful in your workflow - by Domink Kundel
• JavaScript: The First 20 Years Allen Wirfs-Brock and Brendan Eich (the creator of JavaScript) have written a paper for the forthcoming History of Programming Languages Conference about how JavaScript was built and has grown. It goes deep on the tech and syntax development side of things.
• Demystifying Async Programming in Javascript Asynchronous programming in Javascript has undergone several evolutions, from callbacks to promises to generators, and soon to async/await. Check out this article to find out more! By Yunchi Luo
• What is a Higher-Order Function? A higher-order function is a function that either takes a function as an argument or returns a function. Don’t miss this blog post to learn more along with some useful examples! By Nick Scialli
• Aborting a signal: How to cancel an asynchronous task in JavaScript Performing asynchronous tasks can be hard, fortunately, JavaScript offers a very handy piece of functionality for aborting an asynchronous activity. In this article, you can learn how to use it to create your own abortable function. By Tomasz Jakut

Upcoming Events

The following events remain on schedule at the time of posting this. Please check the event’s page for details:

CityJS, March 27 — London, UK — A "JavaScript festival across London", organized in part by London's Node User Group.

React Summit, April 17 — Amsterdam, The Netherlands — A full-day, two-track conference on all things React. It is positioned as the biggest React specific conference in the world.

International JavaScript Conference, April 20-22 — London, UK — This three-day event has a dedicated Node track.

OpenJS Foundation Conference, June 23-24 – Austin, Texas — OpenJS Foundation’s annual event brings together the JavaScript and web ecosystem including Node.js, Electron, AMP and more.

NodeConf Colombia, July 10-11 – Medellin, Colombia — A non-profit event, where the attendees will be sharing in an environment of inclusion and respect, having access to relevant information through talks, workshops, and great experiences with the Colombian Node community!

One Last Thing...

If you find any Node.js or JavaScript related content over the next week (or beyond!), never hesitate to reach out to us on Twitter at @NodeSource to share and get it included in Need to Node - our DMs are open if you don’t want to share publicly!