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by kybernetikos 2189 days ago
I've worked on javascript codebases pushing half a million lines of code, and my memory is that we didn't run into type bugs all that often. The biggest downside was the lack of automated refactoring tools - this was many years ago now.

It did take quite a bit of discipline, but with a skilled team it really wasn't all that hard.
2 comments
Yoric 2189 days ago
If your memory is good, I'm impressed.

> It did take quite a bit of discipline, but with a skilled team it really wasn't all that hard.

Out of curiosity, what was the turnover within the team? My personal experience is that static typing helps a lot when you're new to a codebase. Probably less so when everybody can recite the architecture in their sleep.

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kybernetikos 2189 days ago
The turnover didn't start increasing until the 'javascript ecosystem' developed, and suddenly everyone wished that they were following the new community developed practices rather than the ones we'd be following for years. That lead to lots of factionalism within the team and a lot of unhappiness on all sides.
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yawaramin 2189 days ago
> The biggest downside was the lack of automated refactoring tools

That's what a typechecker gives you–an automated enforcement mechanism for ruling out certain errors during refactoring.

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