[wexomania]

I keep looking for redeeming values in typescript but i keep getting disappointed. Typescript fundamentally fails at its one main mission; to make JavaScript typed, and in doing so, introduces issues much bigger than the "issues" it is trying to solve. (the fact that JavaScript is not strictly typed is not an issue, its a feature, although it also has its drawbacks)

Firstly, the simplest problem to fix with typescript would be to remove the "any" type, with that in the language, it lets lazy developers be lazy and negates the fact that you have typing in the first place.

Secondly, and this is the difficult one to solve, the types can lie to you. Typescript would need to implement a runtime checking system, and i dont see how that can be done without significantly hampering performance and bundle size. I know you can do type guarding and the likes, but you can do that in regular JavaScript as well.

[respondo2134]

>> Firstly, the simplest problem to fix with typescript would be to remove the "any" type, with that in the language, it lets lazy developers be lazy and negates the fact that you have typing in the first place.

I remember when TypeScript was first introduced. 'any' is what allowed it to become the player it is today, because you could use the entire JS ecosystem with very little rework. If you'd of had to redevelop everything up the stack to primitive types it never would have gotten traction.

How is this any different from strongly typed languages that ultimately resolve to 'object'?

Your arguments sound a lot like letting better be the enemy of perfect. TS doesn't have to have runtime type checking (I'd argue it should not) to be a huge productivity gain.

[wexomania]

In that sense I guess you are right, One could also argue that it is possible to write JavaScript in such a way that gives some of the same benefits as TypeScript, but that requires more discipline, and it probably scales badly with larger teams.

I guess i might just have to go on the same journey as OP...

[arenaninja]

I disagree with this.

Regarding the "any" type, it's a crutch to migrate existing codebases that started out without Typescript. Every team I've been on I advocate against using it in production code; some teams are better about this than others but it's up to the team how lax or strict their implementation is

As for runtime type checking, Typescript has not set out to replace the JS runtime. JS remains the lingua franca for dynamic content on the web, Typescript can help you write it better and incur virtually no overhead from it by compiling to plain JS. When I worked with financial applications we followed the strictest typing we knew to implement and in my time there (2.5 years) we had zero runtime bugs. It's a great tool and it works