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by strogonoff 8 days ago
I tend to get triggered when TypeScript is painted as “JS with type hints”. Coming from Python background, TS and Python with type hints are just so different.

With Python I can’t see myself type-annotating everything (or bringing in pydantic anymore for that matter, it is indeed becoming a blight), but with TypeScript my process is turned on its head: I find it natural and easy to start writing with types and have everything fully typed, and I find the fact that it simply won’t compile if anything is off (compared to Python where it’s more like “one of my N type checkers/linters failed, oh well it still runs though) a useful constraint that gives peace of mind.
1 comments
throwaway81523 6 days ago
I've only used Mypy so maybe I should try some more typecheckers. But I've found Mypy and the annotations it uses don't get in the way much, and they make function signatures usable as documentation, so they're generally a win. But they do let a lot of incorrect code through that would have been caught by typechecking in e.g. Haskell. Thus the idea of using 5 typecheckers (not serious I hope, but I understand the sentiment).

I hate JS and have wanted to try Typescript. Is it really JS with type hints? I had thought it was really a different language that compiles to JS, like a less hardcore answer to Purescript. I did like what I saw of Purescript but it never caught on.

I feel like Python itself lost its way during the Python 3 transition and now seems declining like Ruby. IDK what to use instead for low-boilerplate projects though. So I still use Python.

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strogonoff 5 days ago
> Is it really JS with type hints? I had thought it was really a different language that compiles to JS, like a less hardcore answer to Purescript.

No experience with Purescript, but otherwise yes, a language with a different feel. Beats Python in my books. Typings do also serve as documentation but errors won’t compile so it’s not just linting. Make sure to use strict mode so it forces you to pay even more attention to types.

I still occasionally use Python, but TypeScript is my go-to currently.

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