[root_axis]

Node doesn't run in the browser.

[umvi]

Presumably Node is the server (back end), and when the browser requests a TS file, Node is stripping the types before serving it to the browser.

[root_axis]

That presumption is wrong, and doesn't quite make sense if you think about it.

[umvi]

Why doesn't it make sense? I actually do exactly this in my own setup, but with golang instead of Node.

[root_axis]

I don't know what tooling you're using in go, but node does not do any kind of transformation to assets it serves over http. Running logic written in TypeScript on the front end requires some kind of bundler so that the browser can run the code.

[umvi]

You don't need a bundler, just a type stripper. And yeah you need a middleware to perform the type stripping, the server won't do it automatically, but it's like 10 lines of backend code. The basic flow would be something like:

1. Browser requests /js/foo.js

2. Server middleware checks if /js/foo.ts exists

3. If yes, server middleware strips types from the file before returning it

In golang I use the go package github.com/evanw/esbuild[1] to do type stripping on the fly. The middleware looks like this:

``` return esbuild.Transform(string(fileBytes), esbuild.TransformOptions{ Loader: esbuild.LoaderTS, Format: esbuild.FormatESModule, }) ```

It only takes a few microseconds and I don't need any bundlers or tsc or anything like that. Everything on my frontend is 100% vanilla TS; I make changes directly to TS and then hit refresh in my browser and the changes are reflected instantly without needing a bundler or even node/npm for that matter. Note: for this setup to work, your front end TS has to use ES modules import/export which browsers natively support. If you try to use CommonJS or something like that, you would start needing a bundler again because browsers can't resolve "require" statements.

In node it should be even easier than Go because Node added native type stripping starting with v22[2]

But even on older versions of Node, a type stripping middleware would still be very easy to implement[3][4].

[1] https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/evanw/esbuild

[2] https://nodejs.org/api/module.html#modulestriptypescripttype...

[3] https://github.com/bloomberg/ts-blank-space

[4] https://esbuild.github.io/api/#js-async

[root_axis]

> It only takes a few microseconds and I don't need any bundlers

And yet you're using one. Esbuild is one of the most popular bundlers in the js ecosystem, your workflow is functionally identical to any other bundler workflow except that the example you provided is worse than the typical workflow because it builds the ts file on every request rather than just once when the source code changes.

[austin-cheney]

I am aware and it’s not what I said.

[root_axis]

You literally said "this even includes front-end code for the browser".

So what exactly are you referring to here?

[austin-cheney]

I write all my application code in TypeScript, even if it is for the browser. I then import all that code into Node regardless of whether it will execute in Node. All code that will not execute in Node needs to be wrapped in a function for safety, because global references like "document" or "window" will not work in Node.

[root_axis]

You write all your code in TS - great.

You run node with the TS support - great.

That doesn't explain how your front-end TS code is transformed into JS. You seem to be suggesting that node does it automatically, but it doesn't. The explanation of your setup isn't adding up.

[austin-cheney]

> That doesn't explain how your front-end TS code is transformed into JS.

Node will do that at run time. Its automatic. Functions do not have to execute to receive this benefit. They just have to be imported. Ensure you are using a very recent version of Node.

[root_axis]

Yes, but how does your http server deliver the imported code to the front-end? Are you using some type of streaming bundler that does real time builds? Something isn't making sense here.