This document defines a project titled Oden.js (an anagram of Node and Deno). It is intended to be a way to run "JavaScript" on a server but with the following limitations:

• Only JavaScript features that are beneficial in a server context are retained
• Many existing features are hidden behind require() calls
• This is essentially a fork of JavaScript (via V8)
• This is essentially a fork of Node.js (by modifying APIs)

This is not a complete set of changes for defining how Oden will work. Instead it's more of an initial pass. Once implemented and a oden binary is generated it can then be shared and tested.

Node.js API Modifications #

Based on the number of modifications required this would need to be implemented as a "hard fork" of Node.js. I don't think it would be feasable to float patches on top of Node.js.

New Internal Modules #

Errors #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('errors') module:

global.EvalError;
global.URIError;
global.AggregateError;
global.DOMException;

The following remain as globals but are also exports of require('errors'):

global.Error;
global.TypeError;
global.SyntaxError;
global.RangeError;
global.ReferenceError;

Math #

The following JavaScript global is made the top level export of a new require('math') module and is removed from global:

global.Math;

Threads #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('threads') module:

global.BroadcastChannel;
global.Atomics;
global.MessagePort;
global.MessageEvent;
global.MessageChannel;

Atomics #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('atomics') module:

global.Atomics;
global.SharedArrayBuffer;

TODO: Should this be rolled into require('threads') instead?

Array Buffer #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('array_buffer') module:

global.SharedArrayBuffer;
global.ArrayBuffer;
global.BigInt64Array;
global.BigUint64Array;
global.DataView;
global.Float32Array;
global.Float64Array;
global.Int16Array;
global.Int32Array;
global.Int8Array;
global.Uint16Array;
global.Uint32Array;
global.Uint8Array;
global.Uint8ClampedArray;
global.Blob;

An additional export is added as well, notably the TypedArray class, which is the prototype of the aforementioned classes:

require('array_buffer').TypedArray = global.Int8Array.prototype;

Text Encoder #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('text_encoder') module:

global.TextEncoder;
global.TextEncoderStream;
global.TextDecoder;
global.TextDecoderStream;

Intl #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('intl') module:

global.Intl;

Reflection #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('reflection') module:

global.Reflect;
global.Proxy;

Navigator #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('navigator') module:

global.navigator;
global.Navigator;

TODO: Is this stuff important in a pure server context?

Finalization Registry #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('finalization_registry') module:

global.FinalizationRegistry;

Date Time #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of a new require('datetime') module:

global.Date;
global.Temporal;

Mutated Existing Modules #

The following modules are modified and existing globals are added there:

Timers #

const times = require('timers');
timers.queueMicrotask = global.queueMicrotask;
delete global.queueMicrotask;

timers.sleep = ms => new Promise((resolve) => timers.setTimeout(resolve, ms));

Events #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('events') object:

global.EventTarget;
global.Event;
global.CloseEvent;
global.CustomEvent;

Crypto #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('crypto') object:

global.Crypto;
global.CryptoKey;
global.SubtleCrypto;

File #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('file') object:

global.File;

HTTP #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('http') object:

global.fetch;
global.FormData;
global.Request;
global.Response;
global.Headers;
global.AbortController;
global.AbortSignal;
global.WebSocket;

URL #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('url') object:

global.encodeURI;
global.decodeURI;
global.encodeURIComponent;
global.escape;
global.unescape;
global.decodeURIComponent;

The following JavaScript globals are already on the top level exports of the require('url') object and are therefor simply removed from the global:

delete global.URL;
delete global.URLSearchParams;
delete global.URLPattern;

Stream #

The following JavaScript globals are moved to top level exports of the require('stream') object:

global.CompressionStream;
global.DecompressionStream;
global.ReadableByteStreamController;
global.ReadableStream;
global.ReadableStreamBYOBReader;
global.ReadableStreamBYOBRequest;
global.ReadableStreamDefaultController;
global.ReadableStreamDefaultReader;
global.TransformStream;
global.TransformStreamDefaultController;
global.WritableStream;
global.WritableStreamDefaultController;
global.WritableStreamDefaultWriter;
global.ByteLengthQueuingStrategy;
global.CountQueuingStrategy;

Removed Globals #

The following globals are removed as they already exist in an internal module:

// redundant with require('process');
global.process;

// redundant with require('timers');
global.setTimeout;
global.clearTimeout;
global.setImmediate;
global.clearImmediate;
global.setInterval;
global.clearInterval;

// redundant with require('perf_hooks');
global.performance;
global.Performance;
global.PerformanceEntry;
global.PerformanceMark;
global.PerformanceMeasure;
global.PerformanceObserver;
global.PerformanceObserverEntryList;
global.PerformanceResourceTiming;

Dropped Functionality #

• The Buffer class is removed entirely in favor of TypedArray.
• Either completely remove require() or completely remove import. One of CJS or ESM is fine.

JavaScript & V8 Modifications #

I don't know much about V8 but I think it would also need to be a "hard fork" of V8.

Modified Functionality #

typeof Operator #

Calling typeof null now returns a string value of 'null'.

Object Stringification #

Generally, when objects are stringified they will be converted to JSON:

Object.prototype.toString = function(...args) { return JSON.stringify(this, ...args); };
Set.prototype.toString = function() { return JSON.stringify(Array.from(this)); };
Map.prototype.toString = function() { return JSON.stringify(Object.fromEntries(this)); };
Date.prototype.toString = Date.prototype.toISOString;

Dropped Functionality #

String Prototype Methods #

The following string prototype methods are removed:

String.prototype.anchor;
String.prototype.big;
String.prototype.blink;
String.prototype.bold;
String.prototype.fixed;
String.prototype.fontcolor;
String.prototype.fontsize;
String.prototype.italics;
String.prototype.link;
String.prototype.small;
String.prototype.strike;
String.prototype.sub;
String.prototype.sup;

btoa and atob #

The btoa and atob global functions are removed however the functionality still exists as string methods:

const _btoa = global.btoa;
const _atob = global.atob;

String.prototype.toBase64 = function() { return _btoa(this); };
String.prototype.fromBase64 = function() { return _atob(this); };

delete global.btoa;
delete global.atob;

URL Methods #

Several global URL functions are removed and made into string methods. Note that these removed functions are moved to the require('url') internal module, as mentioned above.

String.prototype.encodeURI = function() { return global.encodeURI(this); };
String.prototype.decodeURI = function() { return global.decodeURI(this); };
String.prototype.escapeURI = function() { return global.escape(this); };
String.prototype.unescapeURI = function() { return global.unescape(this); };
String.prototype.decodeURIComponent = function() { return global.decodeURIComponent(this);

Added String Methods #

The following additional String prototype methods are added:

// convert a JSON string into a new object:
String.prototype.fromJson = function() { return JSON.parse(this); };

// create an array buffer from a string:
String.prototype.toArrayBuffer = function() { return (new _encoder()).encode(this); };