[makstaks]

If you are writing code by yourself and your code base is relatively small, then I agree it's hard to see the benefits at first.

If your team and code base grows, one of the first things you'll notice is a lot of time wasted trying to figure out what parameter types a method takes. If you can imagine, a new person onboarding on your code base and having to figure this out constantly and then forgetting, is pretty inefficient.

TypeScript solves that problem since you declare types explicitly in code. The new person will know exactly the parameter types, the IDE can support you more intelligently, and you'll get upfront compile time errors.

The downside is the initial setup and the extra effort of declaring types, so it comes with a cost, but personally I think the benefit outweighs the cost.

[cryptica]

IMO every project should be kept as small as possible. Large code bases are anti-patterns. It's almost always desirable to break up functionality into independent modules. If the modules are sufficiently independent (loose coupling), then you won't get into situations such that you constantly need to modify them... Properly designed modules don't need to be changed often. In my own projects, there are many modules which I haven't modified in several years.

"TypeScript is useful for large code bases" is like saying that a truck is useful for carrying boulders up a mountain... Sure it does, but what if you don't actually need to carry boulders up the mountain to begin with?

[makstaks]

Maybe then question then is how does one get every developer to design and build modules as you have prescribed? (Recognizing different talent levels across the industry / delivery deadlines). Genuinely curious to know a scalable solution for this.

edit: typo

[arcanon]

Agree with this. Ppl can make a mess inside their typesystem specs esp. when making their code interface with others on a large project. Adhoc types that are just bloat. Etc.

Has anyone else had multiple years of experience with typescript in prod or what?

[cryptica]

TBH, I feel like the TypeScript movement is driven mostly by junior developers. The software industry has always been like this; young, loud-mouthed junior devs come in thinking that they know better than all the senior people... They ridicule their elders who have an actual proven track record; they then proceed to push their naive ideas on the entire industry... 10 years later they (sometimes) realize how dumb they were (yes, I've been there myself) but by that point, the next, bigger batch of loud junior devs enter the workplace with even dumber ideas and drown out all the wisdom yet again... Again, the juniors with big egos, fresh out of MIT, think they know better than all the old dinosaurs and they perpetually keep destroying every chance of actually moving the industry forward... The cycle repeats over and over.

[arcanon]

I agree in general except what you said about MIT ppl. I find them to be the humble ones, ironically.