What is Deno?
Deno is a general-purpose JavaScript/TypeScript programming environment.If you are familiar with Node.js, the popular server-side JavaScript ecosystem, then Deno is just like Node. Except deeply improved in many ways.
Deno's Birth
Created by Ryan Dahl, best known as the mastermind behind Node.js, Deno takes advantage of the JavaScript features that have been available since Node.js was released back in 2009. It also addresses the design flaws that Ryan talked about in his “10 Things I Regret About Node.js” lecture.
It was built with:
1.Rust (Deno’s core was written in Rust, Node’s in C++)
2.TypeScript (Deno supports both JavaScript and TypeScript out of the box)
3.V8 (Google’s JavaScript runtime used in Chrome and Node, among others)
Some Shortcomings of Node
1.Any program can write to the filesystem and the network which is a big security concern.
2.In node, the dependencies are stored in node_modules and there is a package.json but the module system isn’t compatible with browsers so our code isn’t fully isomorphic.
Features of Deno
1.It is based on modern features of the JavaScript language
2.It has an extensive standard library
3.It has TypeScript at its core.
4.It embraces ES modules.
5.It has no package manager.
6.Security- Deno is secure by default unlike Node.js which has full access to your file system and network.
Will it replace Node?
No. Node.js is a giant, well established, incredibly well-supported technology that is going to stay for decades.
Should you learn Deno?
Case 1: You have worked with node before and have little/no knowledge of Typescript:
Ans: Yes you can surely go ahead and start learning Deno
Case 2: You have never implemented server-side Javascript in Node
Ans: You should start with node first then jump to Deno because: Node has been here a while and has matured over the years in terms of compatibility and community, once you get a hands-on Node you can switch to Deno
Are you ready to try your hands on Deno?
Here are a few resources to get started with
1.Deno Official Site
2.The Deno Handbook by falvicopes
Latest comments (2)
Nice Article, But I was looking for a practical application of Deno and
looking to get started with Deno and develop a REST API for my
application. So I found a step-by-step guide here for developing a simple API using Deno, TypeScript & Oak Framework.
Thanks! This was just the introduction. I have also mentioned some links which are good to get started with.