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https://github.com/rcompat/rcompat

JavaScript interoperability and runtime compatibility layer for servers
https://github.com/rcompat/rcompat

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JavaScript interoperability and runtime compatibility layer for servers

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# rcompat



JavaScript interoperability and runtime compatibility layer for servers.



## What is rcompat?



A unified interface for Node, Deno and Bun. Similar to jQuery, just for

servers.



## Packages



| Package                                 | Function                          |

|-----------------------------------------|-----------------------------------|

|[@rcompat/args](packages/args)           | program arguments                 |

|[@rcompat/array](packages/array)         | array utilities                   |

|[@rcompat/async](packages/async)         | async utilities                   |

|[@rcompat/build](packages/build)         | build system                      |

|[@rcompat/cli](packages/cli)             | cli apps                          |

|[@rcompat/crypto](packages/crypto)       | cryptographic functions           |

|[@rcompat/env](packages/env)             | loading environment files         |

|[@rcompat/fs](packages/fs)               | filesystem functions              |

|[@rcompat/function](packages/function)   | function utilities                |

|[@rcompat/http](packages/http)           | http servers                      |

|[@rcompat/invariant](packages/invariant) | runtime validation                |

|[@rcompat/module](packages/module)       | module loading                    |

|[@rcompat/object](packages/object)       | object utilities                  |

|[@rcompat/package](packages/package)     | package utilities                 |

|[@rcompat/sql](packages/sql)             | SQL abstractions                  |

|[@rcompat/platform](packages/platform)   | platform querying                 |

|[@rcompat/stdio](packages/stdio)         | process handling                  |

|[@rcompat/streams](packages/streams)     | stream utilities                  |

|[@rcompat/string](packages/string)       | string utilities                  |

|[@rcompat/sync](packages/sync)           | sync utilities                    |

|[@rcompat/webview](packages/webview)     | native webview library            |



## Motivation



### Native speed gains



While tools like Bun strive to be fully compatible with Node's built-in modules

and NPM, with Deno also moving in that direction, those backwards

compatibilities carry a lot of cruft and in the end, you're just using another

runtime to run code written for Node, without taking advantage of the inherent

speed gains that modern APIs introduce. rcompat abstracts that away for you.

You write code once and, wherever possible, it will take advantage of *native*

APIs. This allows you not only to run the same code with different runtimes,

but also speed it up if you choose Bun or Deno over Node during production. You

can easily switch between the runtimes, testing stability vs. modern features,

finding the best runtime for a given app.



### Forward compatibility



rcompat offers forward compatibility in the sense that it can add support for

new runtimes as they emerge *even* on minor updates (as this isn't considered

breaking existing code), allowing you to run old code that was written with

rcompat by newer runtimes. No other server-side interoperability layer for

JavaScript offers this kind of flexibility.



### Batteries included



rcompat is designed with many modules in mind, including `@rcompat/fs` for

filesystem operations, `@rcompat/http` for using a modern HTTP server working

with WHATWG `Request`/`Response` (which Node doesn't support; rcompat wraps

a Node request object into a WHATWG `Request` as it comes in),

`@rcompat/invariant` for ensuring runtime invariants, `@rcompat/object` for

object transformations, and many more useful modules and abstractions.



The standard library is designed to accommodate modern development needs: for

example, `@rcompat/http` supports WebSockets (natively on Deno/Bun, and using

NPM's `ws` on Node), while `@rcompat/fs/file` offers globbing, listing and

manipulation of files, similarly to Python's `pathlib`.



For example, to set up a server with rcompat, use `@rcompat/http/serve` -- the

server-side equivalent of `fetch`.



```js

import serve from "@rcompat/http/serve";



serve(request => new Response("Hi!"), { host: "localhost", port: 6161 });

```



This code runs successfully with either `node app.js` (if you set your

package.json to `{ "type": "module" }`; otherwise use `app.mjs`), `deno run

-A app.js` or `bun --bun app.js`, taking advantage of native optimizations.



### Another standard library?



The JavaScript ecosystem is replete with standard libraries. To take the

example of filesystem access, Node has at least three ways of accessing the

filesystem (sync, callbacks, promises), and then there's Deno's own filesystem

APIs, while Bun has its APIs too. Those all have their pros and cons, and if

you want to target all of them, you're going to have to write a lot of

branching code. rcompat is an abstraction over that, as it plays the role of

both a standard library *and* a runtime compatibility layer -- write once,

target everything.



For example, here's how you can read a file and parse it as JSON.



```js

import file from "@rcompat/fs/file";



console.log(await file("./users.json").json());

```



Again, this code runs successfully on Node, Deno or Bun, taking advantage of

optimizations native to every runtime.



## Evolving standard — input needed



rcompat has been quietly developed the last few months in conjunction with

[Primate](https://primatejs.com)'s development and is largely influenced by its

needs. We'd like to invite more participation by other projects / individuals

in order to converge on APIs that best serve everyone and are the most useful

on a broad basis.



## Resources



* Discord: https://discord.gg/RSg4NNwM4f



## License



MIT



## Contributing



By contributing to rcompat, you agree that your contributions will be licensed

under its MIT license.