What do you think?
Rate this book
Introducing Deno: A First Look at the Newest JavaScript Runtime
Learn everything there is to know about the new secure runtime for Deno. A proposed replacement for Node.js envisioned and created by the same developer who wrote the first version of Node, Deno is a simple, modern and secure runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript that uses V8 and is built in Rust. This book will cover everything from its inception to the currently available version. You’ll see how to take advantage of the security layer in order to avoid unwanted security holes, and how to use TypeScript to develop your applications without having to manually set up a build process. You'll also learn how to create and use modules without having to depend on a package manager, and much more. Armed with these newly learned concepts, by the time you finish this book, you’ll be ready to build and test your own Deno applications. Whether you’re a brand new developer to the back end with a JavaScript background or a seasoned Node.js developer looking to understand this competing technology, Introducing Deno will put you on the right path. What You'll Learn Who This Book Is For Anyone with knowledge of back-end development looking to learn a new way of doing things and those with a basic understanding of JavaScript and Node.js core concepts.
160 pages, Paperback
Published September 17, 2020
1 person want to read
About the author
Fernando Doglio
11 books2 followersTechnical writer, mainly focusing on Node.js and microservices architecture. Also working as a Technical Manager for BigData projects.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 3, 2021
Introducing Deno is (as it says on the tin) an introduction to Ryan Dahl's 'take two' on Node.js, this time targeting TypeScript using V8 and Rust. Weighing in at 150 pages, the book is a very brief, whirlwind tour of Deno's features, presented in contrast to their counterparts in Node.js and providing some background behind why certain design decisions were made.
Overall, while I appreciated the author's efforts to highlight the lessons that Ryan Dahl learned from his work on Node.js, I really felt like the book lacked an overall 'cohesion' to the material presented for a couple of reasons. The first is the lack of specification for the audience: it isn't laid out from the outset who the target audience is (JavaScript developers? People who've used TypeScript? Node.js experts?), and this leads to a sort of 'mish-mash' of topics. For example, the TypeScript chapter was incredibly brief, and it's inclusion seemed puzzling since it's not deep enough for someone with no TypeScript experience, and at the same time just a rehash for those already used to TypeScript. You can also see this in a later chapter where decorators are dropped into the sample code, but were never explained in the TypeScript overview.
The second reason is that the end goal for the reader isn't made clear, and this is something I think technical books really need to nail down to be effective: the reader should be able to clearly say "after reading $BOOK, I should be able to do $THING". The reason this is really important is because without a clear path to an end goal, it's tough to distinguish between the things you need to understand well and the things you can sort of just quickly gloss over. I think the book would've been served better by having a clear goal of what the reader should expect to be able to do with Deno by the time they've reached the end. This not only gives the author a clear metric for what to include (and not include!) in the book, and it gives the reader a clear metric for whether or not their understanding of Deno has appreciably improved.
Overall, I think these reasons, and the lack of editorial polish I found in a few places in the book really prevent this book from being as good as it could have been.
Overall, while I appreciated the author's efforts to highlight the lessons that Ryan Dahl learned from his work on Node.js, I really felt like the book lacked an overall 'cohesion' to the material presented for a couple of reasons. The first is the lack of specification for the audience: it isn't laid out from the outset who the target audience is (JavaScript developers? People who've used TypeScript? Node.js experts?), and this leads to a sort of 'mish-mash' of topics. For example, the TypeScript chapter was incredibly brief, and it's inclusion seemed puzzling since it's not deep enough for someone with no TypeScript experience, and at the same time just a rehash for those already used to TypeScript. You can also see this in a later chapter where decorators are dropped into the sample code, but were never explained in the TypeScript overview.
The second reason is that the end goal for the reader isn't made clear, and this is something I think technical books really need to nail down to be effective: the reader should be able to clearly say "after reading $BOOK, I should be able to do $THING". The reason this is really important is because without a clear path to an end goal, it's tough to distinguish between the things you need to understand well and the things you can sort of just quickly gloss over. I think the book would've been served better by having a clear goal of what the reader should expect to be able to do with Deno by the time they've reached the end. This not only gives the author a clear metric for what to include (and not include!) in the book, and it gives the reader a clear metric for whether or not their understanding of Deno has appreciably improved.
Overall, I think these reasons, and the lack of editorial polish I found in a few places in the book really prevent this book from being as good as it could have been.
Displaying 1 of 1 review