Category: Backend

Node.js 8 is shipping with full async/await support natively, no Babel required. This is the culmination of a multi-year journey from callback hell through Promises to finally having sane async code. But shipping async/await doesn't mean Node.js codebases suddenly become clean—migration is the hard part.

What's New

Node.js 8 includes V8 5.8, which supports async/await from ES2017. You can write this code without any build step:

const fs = require('fs-promise');

async function readConfig() {
  try {
    const data = await fs.readFile('config.json', 'utf8');
    return JSON.parse(data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error('Failed to read config:', error);
    throw error;
  }
}

async function main() {
  const config = await readConfig();
  console.log('Config loaded:', config);
}

main().catch(console.error);

This is dramatically cleaner than callbacks or even raw Promises. The code reads top-to-bottom, errors propagate naturally, and debugging actually works.