Deno 2 - what you might have missed

Deno 2 was released exactly one month ago (on 2024-10-09). So it’s still super fresh. But, if you haven’t been following the Deno news, you might have missed some of the new features. Here’s a quick overview of what’s new in Deno 2.

Their YouTube channel has super interesting content. I highly recommend checking it out. They have a lot of great tutorials about Deno. 🦕

TIL

on YouTube.

A ~33 minutes long video from the creator of Deno, Ryan Dahl, where he goes through some of the new features in Deno 2.

import.meta.*

You can check if a script is being run as the main program or if it’s being imported as a module. Those familiar with python might recognize the pattern.

Docs

Example

import.meta.main

In Python you can do this by checking the __name__ attribute.

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print("Hello, Python!")

if (import.meta.main) {
  console.log("Hello, Deno 2!");
}

Jupyter notebook support

Deno 2 now supports Jupyter notebooks. You can run a Deno script in a Jupyter notebook cell. This is a great way to experiment with Deno and share your code with others.

Switch the kernel to Deno and you can run Deno code in a Jupyter notebook cell.

@std/fmt

// there's a change you can drop chalk and use Deno's fmt module
// to use css in the console 😱
console.log ("%c" + "This is a string!", "background-color: red");

Standard library

Deno 2 comes with a standard library that includes modules for working with files, networking, and more. This makes it easier to get started with Deno and build powerful applications.

Here’s a comparison of some of the modules in the Deno standard library and their (one of possibly many) Node.js equivalents:

I’ve been really enjoying Deno 2 so far. The new ecosystem plays out great. If you haven’t tried Deno yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot. It’s a great alternative to Node.js and I think you’ll love it. 🥰