The PreTeXt Guide

To run a Javascript program outside a web browser requires a program that can interpret the Javascript language. A popular choice is node.js, whose executable is simply node. Programs designed for execution by node often build on other programs. These are all organized in packages, which can be managed by the Node Package Manager, known as npm for short. A basic purpose of npm is to manage versions and dependencies among packages.

So the first step is to install both node and npm on your system. Instructions for installing node and npm

¹

nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager

can be found at nodejs.org

²

nodejs.org/

. These programs are meant to be cross-platform, so once you do these two operating-system-specific installations, we can proceed with generic instructions.

which node

Some useful npm commands are listed below, in the form of examples. These commands depend on running in a package a folder containing a file named “package.json”. So before trying to run any of them, make sure to navigate to such a folder (e.g. script/mjsre or script/cssbuilder). In particular, note npm install which must be run before using a script.

When using node with git (see Appendix I), you generally should should check package.json and package-lock.json into source control, but ignore the entire node_modules folder.