Microsoft puts its spin on JavaScript with TypeScript

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/programming-and-development/microsoft-puts-its-spin-on-javascript-with-typescript/6943

by ceekays • 13 years ago

9 6 13 years ago

phasevar• 13 years ago

Has anyone used TypeScript in conjunction with Node.js? I love developing in the Node ecosystem, but the lack of type checking is irritating.

jschrf2• 13 years ago

I haven't worked with Node myself, but you can find a definition file here: https://github.com/borisyankov/DefinitelyTyped/tree/master/n...

Fly at it, I say.

agilebyte2• 13 years ago

Yes. Microsoft offers a Node.js v0.8.8 definition file in their examples. There are some others floating on Github for other versions.

I use WebStorm to give me autocomplete for the version of Node I am running. The defs are there just to make the compiler shut up.

jschrf2• 13 years ago

I use TypeScript on a medium-sized (>50K LOC) single-page web application, as well as on some personal projects. The large project was ported over from JavaScript, which went quite smoothly. So far TypeScript has been great. Doing front-end web development while writing type-safe quite is a nice luxury I have not had before.

The only thing I would complain about is some of the tooling is still a bit unstable, which is understandable. I'm using Visual Studio 2012.

I've been looking forward to 0.9 for some time now, as the generic support allows me to fully express all of the types in my system.

To me the most beautiful thing about TypeScript is it's compatibility with JavaScript and how definition files work. Definition files essentially allow you to write code contracts against existing pieces of JavaScript code that may or may not be outside of your control.

https://github.com/borisyankov/DefinitelyTyped is a good resource for definition files.

bleakgadfly• 13 years ago

I can relate to the unstableness of the TypeScript intellisense for VS2012, although Web Essentials 2012 does improve things.

However, I easily trade the unstableness of intellisense for the type-safety of TypeScript.

agilebyte2• 13 years ago

I cannot recomment WebStorm enough. Has great support for Type/JavaScript and IntelliSense works automatically from sources for the runtime/libraries you are using.

Have tough time getting used to definition files at the moment. Microsoft only offers a v0.8.8 file of Node.js. Loads floating on GitHub that contain errors. Not good. I suspect it is one of those thing where until a lot of people use TypeScript and there are defs for different versions of libraries (by authors), it will be a bit of a wild west.

Microsoft puts its spin on JavaScript with TypeScript

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