Node.js is able to execute TypeScript files without additional configuration

Post by dingi » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 10:22 AM UTC

sdfhbdf wrote: post #14

mattlondon wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah agreed - saying "node can execute typescript files" is a bit misleading. More accurate would be "node can find-and-replace type information with spaces from .ts files and try and executing them as if they were plain JavaScript" I suspect this would only handle the most rudimentary and basic typescript files. Once you start using the type system more extensively I suspect this will blow-up in your face. It's kind…

> node can find-and-replace type information with spaces from .ts files and try and executing them as if they were plain JavaScript That’s what all the other tools like ts-node and tsx do already. I’m not sure what more are you expecting to do? Typescript is build time type checked, there is no runtime component to TypeScript. If you want type checking you run tsc. I think this is a great step in the right direction…

Post by dingi » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 10:31 AM UTC

Post by CharlieDigital » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 10:33 AM UTC

ruined wrote: post #47

ninetyninenine wrote: post #6

Is there any movement in the node world for the runtime to be able to ascertain types? Obviously nodejs doesn't do this, but does Bun or Deno or are there plans for any of this in the future?

i don’t think you’ll see this at the typescript level, and you won’t see anything like this that compiles to javascript. specifically, compiling typescript to javascript with runtime checks would not actually be very useful. typescript is pretty ambiguous about a lot of the things that would need explicit definition for runtime safety, and anyways we already have tools for that - it’s called zod. and comprehensive ch…

Post by hmry » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 10:36 AM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #20

tempodox wrote: post #2

It looks like this works by stripping away the type information, so at best it saves you a transpilation pass and doesn't improve safety.

One of Typescript's design goals is that removing all type-related parts of the source text should yield a valid JavaScript file. A typescript compiler does not generate code (unlike, say, PureScript). You can run a typechecker (such as tsc) that check various properties of your code statically, relying on the type information. It is then erased. The same applies, say, to Python: type annotations are ignored at runti…

Post by coldtea » Sun, Aug 17, 2025, 10:39 AM UTC

cheschire wrote: post #74

pjmlp wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have them though? On the projects I am involved, they could even not exist, only node LTS releases matter, and the most recent projects are still node 20.

As a quick aside, “them” is an object pronoun, not a subject pronoun. The correct word you needed is “they”. You couldn’t phrase your original question as a statement “Them have though.” That’s often a quick test for valid English grammar. With the correct pronoun, it makes more sense: “They have though.” As another example, take this sentence: “Have you seen them though?” “You” is the subject of that sentence, and “…