Installing Node.js

This book will presume that you're using Node 8.4 or a later version. Odd numbered versions of Node are not meant to be long lived. 6.x.x, 8.x.x, 10.x.x, and so on are okay, but avoid 7.x.x, 9.x.x, and so on, at all costs.

1. Execute the installation command:

For Windows:

PS> choco install nodejs-lts -y

For macOS:

$ brew install node@8

1. Verify installation of Node by executing node -v
2. Verify npm by executing npm -v

Note that you should never upgrade your npm version using npm install -g npm on Windows, as highlighted in Chapter 4, Staying Up to Date with Angular Updates. It is highly recommended that you use the npm-windows-upgrade npm package.

The npm repository contains numerous useful and mature CLI commands that are often cross-platform. Listed here are the ones I rely on frequently and choose to install globally for performance reasons:

• npx: Executes CLI tools by downloading the latest version on demand or project-specific local node_modules folder. It ships with npm 5 and will allow you to run code generators that frequently update without a global install.
• rimraf: The Unix command rm -rf, but works on Windows as well. Very useful in deleting the node_modules folder, especially when Windows is unable to do so due to the nested folder structure.
• npm-update: Analyzes your project folder and reports on which package have newer versions or not, with the option to be able to update all of them, if you so wish.
• n: Dead easy to tool to switch between versions of Node quickly, without having to remember the specific version number. Unfortunately, it only works on macOS/Linux.
• http-server: Simple, zero-configuration command-line HTTP server, which is a great way to locally test static HTML/CSS pages or even the dist folder of your Angular or React project.
• npm-windows-upgrade: Necessary to upgrade npm on Windows.