Deno 1.42 was released Thursday with full support for JSR, an open source registry for modern JavaScript and TypeScript packages built by the Deno team.
JSR was created with TypeScript support in mind, according to the documentation, so TypeScript source files are published directly to JSR. Deno and other platforms that natively support TypeScript can use these files directly. That means developers can consume and publish to JSR without additional tooling, the team added.
“Our vision with Deno is to simplify programming, and one important aspect of that is managing dependencies,” the team wrote. “While npm has grown to be the most successful open source registry, consuming and publishing modules there has grown increasingly complex.”
For other environments — the document specifically mentions Node.js — that don’t have native TypeScript support, JSR will transpile the source code to JavaScript, and distribute the modules with .d.ts files to support TypeScript tooling for Node.js projects.
JSR isn’t meant to replace npm, but rather builds on it by offering “a modern, TypeScript-first, and cross-platform-compatible registry, fully integrated into Deno,” the team added.
The release introduced two new subcommands to make it easier to work with JSR, including:
deno add, which works like npm add but defaults to JSR packages anddeno publish, which was published to JSR.Jan Labs, a robotics company, has released an open source AI chatbot that can run 100% offline on your computer, according to its GitHub repository. It’s being promoted as an alternative to ChatGPT, but unlike the proprietary offering, it’s operating under the AGPLv3 license.
Jan runs on a range of hardware architectures, including:
”Using TypeScript and C++, Jan is a pragmatically constructed system that supports a variety of frameworks and runtimes through a modular architecture,” wrote computer science engineering student Tanya Malhotra Malhotra. “Jan provides versatility suited to various use cases, whether it is used as a headless server mode with Node.js or as a desktop client powered by Electron.”
Jan has more than 500,000 downloads, according to its website, which offers downloads for MacOS, Linux and Windows.
Vercel updated its Next.js AI chatbot so it can use the AI SDK 3.0 with React Server Components.
The frontend development platform added examples of Generative UI to help developers “quickly create rich chat interfaces beyond just plain text.” It also updated the chatbot to the latest Next.js App Router and Shadcn UI, Vercel noted in a post about the updates.
Finally, Vercel removed a requirement to create a GitHub OAuth application prior to the initial deployment.
Vercel is also working on a product called V0 that would dynamically generate React components using AI, according to a recent YouTube video released by Vercel.
Flutter, the open source UI software development kit created by Google, debuted at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week. Flutter is used to develop cross-platform applications for any web browser, as well as Android, iOS, Linux, macOS and Windows.
More than 15,000 new mobile games have been developed with Flutter in the past 12 months, since the debut of the Flutter Casual Games Toolkit, wrote Zoey Fan, the senior product manager for Flutter at Google.
“Flutter offers compelling advantages for 2D casual games, particularly interface-driven or turn-based titles,” Fan wrote. “The fact that it’s open source eliminates licensing fees, provides deep control over game mechanics and grants access to a rich plugin ecosystem. Flutter’s ‘hot reload’ feature accelerates development, while its optimized engine ensures smooth performance across devices, including browsers.”
Fan also shared what the team will focus on this year when it comes to Flutter and gaming:
