{"id":7182,"date":"2023-10-30T20:54:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T19:54:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.bart.sk\/en\/?p=7182"},"modified":"2024-01-25T12:39:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-25T11:39:41","slug":"will-bun-1-0-defeat-unthreatened-nodejs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.bart.sk\/en\/will-bun-1-0-defeat-unthreatened-nodejs\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Bun 1.0 defeat the unthreatened NodeJS?"},"content":{"rendered":"

My work day usually begins, in addition to a quick update from my colleagues’ lives, with a short survey of what’s new in the IT world. One of the topics I’ve been following over the last few months is the engine\/all-in-one JavaScript runtime & toolkit Bun. Ever since the 0.3 version, it’s been talked about everywhere as the vanquisher of NodeJS. Is it really true? In my opinion, only partially.<\/b><\/p>\n

Bun vs. NodeJS \u2013 what are the differences?<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Before I start describing Bun, let’s remember what NodeJS actually is. It’s an environment that’s used to create and run modern applications written in JavaScript. It’s written in C and uses the V8 engine (and all its derivatives) to read and translate and it’s used in the Chromium browser. Its main advantage is launching concurrent requests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bun is basically something like NodeJS.<\/b> It’s supposed to serve the same purpose, i.e. to write and translate applications created in JavaScript, but it has more instruments integrated in its base. I’ll come back to those later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first difference between Bun and NodeJS is that Bun uses JavaScriptCore as the engine<\/b>, which is used in Safari. At the moment, I can’t say if it’s better, as its primary designation is smaller, but it’ll certainly show in the future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another significant difference is the use of the Zig language, in which the entire Bun is designed.<\/b> If you’ve never heard of Zig, Rust is maybe more familiar. Zig is basically similar to Rust – designed mainly for security, multi-threaded, modern (but written more traditionally) and fully compatible with C\/C++.<\/span><\/p>\n

What extras does Bun have?<\/b><\/h2>\n

As I mentioned, Bun has some apps and modules built in to help developers streamline their work. I’ll highlight the ones that are most important to me personally:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. TypeScript applications: <\/b>Bun contains the TypeScript transpiler already in the base, so no setup or debugging is necessary. If you have your own tsconfig.json, you can fine-tune the operation of the transpiler thanks to it, but if the normal settings are enough for you, it isn’t necessary at all. Simply create a file with the .ts or .tsx extension and go ahead.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Development mode: <\/b>Amazingly fast -watch mode that instantly translates any application, and -hot mode for quickly rendering changed parts.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. package.json: <\/b>Full support for package.json file and node_module folder.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Tests: <\/b>Bun supports writing tests already in the base. The syntax is compatible with Jest, it runs fast and there’s also support for snapshots.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Compatibility: <\/b>Bun is almost completely compatible with applications written for NodeJS. It uses the same JavaScript and the API and a large part of the most commonly used NodeJS commands are also supported. Already there are plenty of tutorials on the Internet on how to migrate or test your apps from NodeJS to Bun. It’s worth a try.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    Figure 1: Server configuration. Source: <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/dev.to\/mourishitz\/running-nestjs-server-with-bun-4cdl<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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    Figure 2: Test from the configuration in Figure 1 for development – almost twice as many requests processed in 30 seconds. Source:\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/dev.to\/mourishitz\/running-nestjs-server-with-bun-4cdl<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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    Figure 3: Test from the configuration in Figure 1 for a built project – almost 3x more requests processed in 30s. Source: <\/span><\/i>https:\/\/dev.to\/mourishitz\/running-nestjs-server-with-bun-4cdl<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Comparison by practice<\/b><\/p>\n

    I won’t uselessly describe the common tests on the hello-world demo here. I prefer to share my own experience and my feelings tests from practice. I found that:<\/span><\/p>\n