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TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

typescriptlang.org

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Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started doing C# development last year, coming from mostly a Unix/Perl platform, and I'm really glad about the timing because that's when Microsoft got serious about open development. I started doing web apps using ASP.NET MVC3, and this year MVC4 was released as an open-source project[1]. It seems that a bunch of 'young turks' have reached higher management positions in most of the key software development product…

Roughly the same story here. At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I feel that while most tech BigCos (e.g. Google, Apple) have become more evil over time, MS has actually become less evil, to the point that using their tech (and some major tech at that) is relatively free of any lock-in risk. TypeScript seems very much in line with this trend, and I love it. This is exactly what I wanted - JavaScript but with decen…

Um, you know how Rails binds, right?

Also: MVC2 runs under NET 3.5 which doesn't even have the dynamic keyword. (I don't use dynamic in MVC3 or MVC4 either...)

The "stringly typed" (magic string) stuff was always avoidable. Regardless, see the [CallerMemberName] annotation and others which solves it back to INotifyPropertyChanged.

Now that the backlog of Microsoft tools have shipped, the scaffolding makes a bit more sense. The MVC team released multiple versions (open sourced!) instead of waiting for VS11. Which actually lines up with your core argument.

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#183
post #42

Very interesting. The Apache 2.0 Licence is comforting, makes it worth having a look. The docs are here for anyone interested in the spec: http://typescript.codeplex.com/documentation I like what they've done. Nothing too revolutionary, mostly adding static typing to Javascript without straying to far from the existing (or future) language or increasing the noise significantly. Here's some highlights: * Type inferenc…

Are you actually implying with the above example code that you can call a undefined "super" constructor on an interface and pass it the "balance" variable, which the interface's non-existent constructor would presumably match by name?

Nope. I probably should have used a different example for the interface. The examples are from the full spec where they progress a little more gradually from a BankAccount interface to a BankAccount class to a CheckingAccount subclass.

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#184
post #4

Say what you want about whether this is a good idea or not, it is clear at least part of MS is really serious about open source. * TypeScript is under the Apache 2.0 license [1] * Source is available via git on Codeplex [2] * Installation is as easy as npm install -g typescript [3] Extra bonus coolness: They've provided an online playground like jsfiddle! [4]. [1] http://typescript.codeplex.com/license [2] http://typ…

Only when it suits them. When it doesn't, they go after the companies using it with the threat of lawsuits.

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#185

All of these compile-to-JS efforts are great, and as much as I love things like CoffeeScript I have to say I definitely worry about language fragmentation. JavaScript is full of flaws, but its monopoly in the browser space has brought about one intriguing and welcome side-effect: a VERY efficient market for both employers and employees. It's easy to overlook how important this common denominator has been for everyone…

> In today's fast-paced development environment, the ability to hit the ground running is key

actually, i think one of the major flaws in the current programming job market is overrating the ability to hit the ground running. that leads to a dangerous level of short-term optimisation, where, say, you'd choose an employee who has experience with your current stack over someone with a better track record but requiring a month or so to learn their way around the specific languages and ecosystems involved.

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#186
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually even shorter: names = people.map((p) -> p.name)

I wish Typescript would add "implied return of last statement" to the short function syntax! I love that feature in Erlang.

that's the feature i'm most surprised they didn't add. coffeescript already does it, for instance.

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that this project is essentially a proof-of-concept, and that it is not heavily used at Microsoft. My team has been dogfooding TypeScript for several months now, providing lots of feedback and writing > 30,000 lines of code (in many cases the new TypeScript code is shorter than the original Javascript).

In this case, I must infer that the culture of documentation is not the same at Microsoft as it is at Google. Further, how can you have a tool like this and nothing for generating type-aware documentation from your source code? Google uses jsdoc-toolkit, so this is a moot point for them. Either you guys are using this in an informal fashion, or documentation isn't that important at Microsoft, or you just haven't rele…

The Language Specification looks pretty extensive[1].

And TypeScript is just the language, so there's no API to document besides what your browser exposes in JS.

[1] http://www.typescriptlang.org/Content/TypeScript%20Language%...

Re: TypeScript: a language for application-scale JavaScript development

#189
post #42

Very interesting. The Apache 2.0 Licence is comforting, makes it worth having a look. The docs are here for anyone interested in the spec: http://typescript.codeplex.com/documentation I like what they've done. Nothing too revolutionary, mostly adding static typing to Javascript without straying to far from the existing (or future) language or increasing the noise significantly. Here's some highlights: * Type inferenc…

Are you actually implying with the above example code that you can call a undefined "super" constructor on an interface and pass it the "balance" variable, which the interface's non-existent constructor would presumably match by name?

I haven't read the docs so I may be completely off. But that "super" syntax could be similar to "brace initialization" in C.
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