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Sumedh Patkar
Sumedh Patkar

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ELI5: Why was Deno necessary when we had Node.js

Can anyone explain to me like I'm five - Why deno was created when nodejs existed?

Consider me as a beginner who has written 3-4 server-side programs in node.

P.S. - Please don't post a link to Ryan Dahl's video

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vonheikemen profile image
Heiker

Why deno was created when nodejs existed?

So, okay, we (as a community) don't need deno. Deno exists because Ryan Dahl felt the need to create "an environment" where he could play around and create something quickly but it could also allow him to create "entreprise quality software". He said in a conference talk that he thinks node is very close to that but that it isn't perfect. I think deno is basically what Ryan thinks node should be by now.

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pieterbergwerff profile image
Pieter Bergwerff

As Ryan is saying in his video; it’s a rethink of how he would develop Node right now.
So for example everything in Deno is typed with Typescript. This leverages a lot less bugs during development.
Also Deno has no centralized module packager like NPM. That means you can import your modules from wherever you want.
A security advantage is that you have to specify which apis to use when running your app.

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siy profile image
Sergiy Yevtushenko

I've worked on few libraries during my career and every time I observed the same pattern: I write implementation (perhaps incomplete); I have feeling that something is wrong with it; I rethink how it should be implemented and rewrite library from scratch; repeat.
I realize that this is just a (perhaps unnecessary) perfectionism but I'm not alone with such approach.
Perhaps Ryan Dahl is also among such persons. If so, I understand his reasoning for creating Demo very well :)

👋 Kindness is contagious

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