title: What is a buffer in Node.js?
body: <p>As you can read in the <a href="http://nodejs.org/api/buffer.html" rel="noreferrer">Node.js documentation on the Buffer class</a>, a buffer</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>is similar to an array of integers but corresponds to a raw memory allocation outside the V8 heap.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So far, so good.</p>
  
  <p>What now puzzles me is the question what a buffer is technically speaking. Is it an array with just some additional functions for creating and converting to strings using specific encodings?</p>
  
  <p>Or is there "more" to it?</p>