Why does node.js need python

Question

I am starting up with node This is from node.js README.md

Prerequisites (Unix only):

* GCC 4.2 or newer
* Python 2.6 or 2.7
* GNU Make 3.81 or newer
         


        

Answer 1

Yes, node uses some python scripts under the hood, though Node is largely written in C++.

See some of Node's python code here:

https://github.com/joyent/node/tree/master/tools

E.g., js2c.py converts Javascript into C-style char arrays:

https://github.com/joyent/node/blob/master/tools/js2c.py

In general, if a package tells you that it requires Python, then it is almost certainly using Python ;)