Many of you know that I constantly dabble in programming languages and database platforms.  Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Javascript, Go, Erlang mixed in with a little MySQL, MSSQL, CouchDB, MongoDB and BigTable.

For me, the ideal combo has been Javascript (via NodeJS and the browser) and CouchDB.  To the extent anyone cares, let me explain why.

Javascript turns out to be a very powerful language.  If you have only used Javascript to make your HTML page do stupid tricks, then you probably haven’t used Javascript appropriately in the past 5 years.  The language has become really first class and if you have ever used Google Docs or Gmail, then you have experienced Javascript’s true power.

One of the best things to have happen to Javascript is NodeJS.  NodeJS is a server side Javascript engine that is based on Google’s V8 Javascript interpreter.  Node lets you do just about in Javascript that you can do with any other programming language and its evented nature makes is super fast.  Definately worth checking out.

One of the best things about writing programs with Javascript is that you get to leverage the same langugage in the back-end that you are already probably using in the front-end.

CouchDB is a key/value pair document database in the NOSQL branch of database evolution.  Whether NOSQL is your cup of tea or not, CouchDB is really impressive. Fast, flexible and 100% web-based and REST oriented, CouchDB can be deployed in just about any project.  

One of the coolest uses of CouchDB is to deploy a “CouchApp.”  Since CouchDB is 100% web-based, you can both deploy your app’s web pages and corresponding database structure all though CouchDB.  Add in its built-in replication feature and you have a deploy-anywhere application architecture that you just can’t find anywhere else.  Check it out!