[fallenspec]

> We do see (3) with Typescript and Coffeescript. These create some debugging friction. Also as JavaScript gets marginally better the appeal of these other languages can feel more niche, and many people just use the common denominator.

I have no idea with Coffeescript (I've read about it, but never used it). But my current job is basically spent all day writing TypeScript.

1) There is no debugging friction. I can debug TypeScript directly in my browser.

2) It isn't marginally better over JavaScript. It is leaps and bounds better than JavaScript.

TypeScript compiler will catch many, many, many common problems straight away (provided it is configured correctly). I have written a lot of JavaScript and I don't enjoy going back to having to write regular JavaScript.

[horsawlarway]

The friction with typescript is the build environment (speaking as someone who also prefers it, and uses it all day).

If someone else is handling that work for you (and in most companies this does essentially become a core responsibility for a few critical maintainers) then yes - Typescript feels great.

If you have a small, single person project - there's enough real overhead there that I'm not sure typescript is the right initial choice.

[fallenspec]

> The friction with typescript is the build environment (speaking as someone who also prefers it, and uses it all day).

You can literally do:

    tsc filename.ts

And you will have a javascript file that you can run in a browser. No configuration files needed, just need to install the typescript compiler. Sure if you need more complicated things. You will need a more complicated setup. But it is no worse (and in someways better) than most of the ecosystem.

> If someone else is handling that work for you (and in most companies this does essentially become a core responsibility for a few critical maintainers) then yes - Typescript feels great.

I don't know where you work. However I've done this myself by myself. It is well documented and it isn't that difficult. I think the hardest to setup from scratch is webpack, but Gulp is fairly straightforward.

I've have set stuff up completely from scratch and created my own framework with TypeScript (I was bored during lockdown) and it takes maybe a day to figure out with webpack.

Not something for a beginner. However you don't need a whole team to do this or specific people looking after it.

> If you have a small, single person project - there's enough real overhead there that I'm not sure typescript is the right initial choice.

The same could be said of any other language where you need any sort of build system and a compiler.