blog: add bench-node announcement

priv/posts/bench-node-announcement.md

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+---
+title: Announcing bench-node
+date: 2025-01-02 16:40
+tags: nodejs,benchmarking,en-US
+---
+
+# Announcing bench-node
+
+I’m excited to announce the release of bench-node, a Node.js benchmarking library
+designed to measure operations per second (ops/sec) for small, focused blocks of
+JavaScript code. Originally, this project was intended for inclusion in Node.js
+core, but microbenchmark accuracy is a complicated topic—so, after many
+discussions and the need for more time, we decided to make it available as a
+standalone tool in my own repository. We’ve already been using bench-node to
+provide performance data in “The State of Node.js Performance” report and to
+power the “nodejs-bench-operations” GitHub repository.
+
+If you like, please star it: https://github.com/RafaelGSS/bench-node.
+
+## Why bench-node?
+
+JavaScript engines (like V8) use Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation and other
+optimizations that can make quick microbenchmark results misleading. Rather than
+risk having dead code optimized away, bench-node explicitly instructs V8 not to
+optimize the tested code (using a snippet like `%NeverOptimizeFunction(DoNotOptimize)`).
+This produces stable comparisons for small snippets of code, but be aware that no
+microbenchmark can fully match real-world behavior—production workloads often
+trigger additional JIT optimizations and garbage collection pauses that can’t be
+perfectly captured.
+
+## Quick Start
+
+Install bench-node:
+
+```console
+$ npm install bench-node
+```
+
+Then create a file (e.g., `my-benchmark.js`):
+
+```js
+const { Suite } = require('bench-node');
+
+const suite = new Suite();
+
+suite.add('Using delete property', () => {
+  const data = { x: 1, y: 2, z: 3 };
+  delete data.y;
+  data.x;
+  data.y;
+  data.z;
+});
+
+suite.run();
+```
+
+Run it with:
+
+```console
+$ node --allow-natives-syntax my-benchmark.js
+```
+
+```
+Using delete property x 7,736,869 ops/sec (11 runs sampled) v8-never-optimize=true min..max=(127.65ns ... 129.97ns)
+```
+
+You’ll see ops/sec measurements in your console, plus metadata on min/max times
+and V8 flags. For convenience, try the bench-node-cli tool:
+
+```console
+npx bench-node-cli my-benchmark.js
+```
+
+This lets you run a benchmark script without installing bench-node locally.
+
+## Features
+
+- **Multiple Reporters**: Text, chart, HTML, JSON -- choose your favorite format.
+- **Plugins**: Extend functionality to force optimizations or collect custom
+  metrics.
+- **Setup and Teardown**: Manage pre/post tasks without spoiling core timing
+  data.
+- **Worker Threads**: Optionally isolate benchmarks for more accurate results.
+
+## What’s Next?
+
+While bench-node helps ensure consistent comparisons for simple code blocks,
+it’s still a microbenchmark tool. Real workloads can differ greatly. For a deeper
+look into common pitfalls, see the “Writting JavaScript Mistakes” section in the
+docs. If you have questions or feedback, open an issue in the repo—I’d love to
+hear how bench-node works for you.
+
+Happy benchmarking!