Software Engineering Radio - the podcast for professional software developers SE Radio 553: Luca Casonato on Deno
Mar 1, 2023
Luca Casonato, a core member of the Deno project and advocate for web-standard server-side JavaScript, dives into the world of Deno and Deno Deploy. He discusses Deno's origin focused on standards alignment, TypeScript support, and its advantages over Node.js. The conversation explores why creating an integrated toolset is beneficial, along with practical applications of WebAssembly in Deno. Luca also highlights the unique features of Deno Deploy, such as edge hosting for reduced latency and upcoming enhancements, making it a game-changer for developers.
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What Defines A JavaScript Runtime
- A runtime is native code that executes JavaScript/TypeScript outside of a self-hosted JS environment.
- It provides host APIs and optionally IO bindings to poke holes in the engine's sandbox.
V8 vs. The Runtime Layer
- Engines like V8 execute JS but expose no IO; runtimes supply host APIs to interact with the outside world.
- Different runtimes choose different host APIs, affecting permissions and portability.
Event Loop Lives In The Runtime
- Promises and microtasks live in the engine, but asynchronous IO scheduling is provided by the runtime's event loop.
- Deno uses Tokio, Node uses libuv; choice affects async behavior and integrations.