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How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

chiragswadia.medium.com

11–20 of 400 posts

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#11
Not long ago I used to hate Javascript, and it was because I did not understand it very well, and then I read Flanagan's book "Javascript the definitive guide" and now I like it!

So, is there a good book that some of you would recommend, that would have the same impact as Flanagan's, but about TypeScript?

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#12
Are there big companies still doing untyped JS at scale out there?

I'm not a frontend person and I always disliked dynamic type systems. But I vaguely remember the skepticism when Angular moved to TS. To me it made a lot of sense that most projects at Google, MS and the like would hugely benefit from a language that is kind of a C# on the JS runtime. And in 2021 I see TS pretty much everywhere, but maybe I'm missing something?

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#13

I think a large part of the support for Typescript comes from being able to create good tools for the language. But, I still have an aversion to front-end development itself, because it just feels too _involved_. You have to set up so much, and it has become a lot more difficult since you need to install webpack, postcss, and many other plugins just to do a hello world app. It's still bearable if you have to do all o…

This argument also holds for backend development. I've spent days trying to get a big Java app working with Jboss at a new place, it was more or less a rite of passage when joining the team. Also setting up some local obscure Microsoft IIS setting because reasons.

These days I find frontend tooling quite delightful, Typescript for instance Just Work(tm) our the box.

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#14

It's probably worth taking a step back and interrogating why the actual "Why was I Anti-TypeScript?" a little bit more and use it as an opportunity for broader self development. The author didn't use and understand something, and rather than trying to they instead just defaulted to rejection. It's midly disapointing seeing this in people who label themselves as "Senior".

The heuristic of "new JS tech is just needless complexity/over-engineering" is not a bad one to have in the JS ecosystem imo :)

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#15

For me, I can handle the lack of static typing when I'm doing small scripts, like if it's going to be 100 lines or so of Python (my go-to language if I need to test some math out in a sandbox or do some file manipulation on my system). I might actually be a little faster in writing those scripts because of the lack of typing. Once it starts getting any bigger than that, though, static typing really catches and points…

I guess static first is a chore because at that point you have no idea what invariant or structure is required for the task. After prototyping you know where to tighten the bolts.

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#16
post #14

It's probably worth taking a step back and interrogating why the actual "Why was I Anti-TypeScript?" a little bit more and use it as an opportunity for broader self development. The author didn't use and understand something, and rather than trying to they instead just defaulted to rejection. It's midly disapointing seeing this in people who label themselves as "Senior".

The heuristic of "new JS tech is just needless complexity/over-engineering" is not a bad one to have in the JS ecosystem imo :)

Typescript is hardly "new", it's fairly widely accepted now. It might be worth thinking "why do all these people enjoy using Typescript?".

or idk just say that no, its the kids that are wrong.

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#18

It's probably worth taking a step back and interrogating why the actual "Why was I Anti-TypeScript?" a little bit more and use it as an opportunity for broader self development. The author didn't use and understand something, and rather than trying to they instead just defaulted to rejection. It's midly disapointing seeing this in people who label themselves as "Senior".

Agreed, though at least there's one less developer writing about the "TypeScript Tax".

I am a TypeScript fan but I do acknowledge the existence of the tax. TS is another cog in the machine that does useful work but can sometimes confusingly interact with other cogs (e.g. miles long unreadable TS errors coming out of React). Using or not using TS is not a trivial decision to me and should be made with consideration to the complexity of your stack.

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The heuristic of "new JS tech is just needless complexity/over-engineering" is not a bad one to have in the JS ecosystem imo :)

Typescript is hardly "new", it's fairly widely accepted now. It might be worth thinking "why do all these people enjoy using Typescript?". or idk just say that no, its the kids that are wrong.

All the kids enjoyed using Javascript too. Language popularity is a bit of a random walk.

Re: How an Anti-TypeScript “JavaScript developer” like me became a TypeScript fan

#20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, though at least there's one less developer writing about the "TypeScript Tax".

I am a TypeScript fan but I do acknowledge the existence of the tax. TS is another cog in the machine that does useful work but can sometimes confusingly interact with other cogs (e.g. miles long unreadable TS errors coming out of React). Using or not using TS is not a trivial decision to me and should be made with consideration to the complexity of your stack.

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