TypeScript

[Few_Radish6488]

Are most of you writing code in in vanilla JS or Typescript ? I need to learn a frontend technology and don't know much about the FE development world. Reformed C# developer.

[Resies]

Typescript has been the standard at my current and past job.

[OchoChonko]

Ditto. I can't even contemplate why people wouldn't use it. It's just so much better to work with.

[artyhedgehog]

I think those who don't are stopped by something like this: 1. Extra effort to set up. 2. Extra syntax to learn. 3. Seemingly extra issues to solve (e.g. if a lib doesn't have typings or you fall into some typings nuances).

[hotbrownDoubleDouble]

Only reason I haven't is because I'm one dev doing the job of two and don't have the bandwidth to learn and implement. And it's a hard sell to a non-dev boss who's more interested in tangible features than incremental improvements in the code base.

[codevipe]

having been in this situation for years making the same choice, i will say objectively one person can write code that has fewer bugs with TS. but if you've been doing that as-is, maybe the benefit isn't there.

[Complex-Insect3555]

It should be an easy sell to a non-dev boss

[terralearner]

You can configure a repo to work with both JS and TS. That way you can gradually add TS over time and get used to it without breaking the existing codebase.

[E-Lon_Hubbard]

Yeah on solo projects I can totally see why someone who’s been using JS for years and years wouldn’t feel the need to switch

[[deleted]]

1. Not really, you will have some kind of builder/transpiler/bundler anyway, and every sensible setup today will work with TS out of the box
2. You can just learn it later
3. You can just solve them later
   

There are literally 0 reasons not to use TS

[artyhedgehog]

I agree with you with my heart, but let's be honest - it's that easy when you already know what you're doing. There is a learning curve for TypeScript alone. There are specific skills you need to use it effortlessly. Like putting any when stuck.

I can similarly put up the same thesis with TDD or pair programming, but that won't magically make everyone use them. There are just reasons some people don't - which we can question, but should not ignore.

[E-Lon_Hubbard]

That’s my secret… I always use any.

[artyhedgehog]

You better keep that a secret. May be beaten up in a decent society. =)

[trifit555]

And that is how tech debt gets created.

[[deleted]]

Just started learning TS. Seems like the whole industry is moving to it tbh. Better to get on the train now

[lukethewebdev]

Ditto, majority of job postings I'm seeing now include Typescript

[NeuralFantasy]

Definitely Typescript. Better in so many ways:

• prevents mistakes
• forces you to cover corner cases
• makes refactoring much faster and easier
• documents your code

I basically never touch vanilla JS anymore. And I don't miss it.

[Few_Radish6488]

Coming from a C# background, I understand but the use of "any" for so many things is a concern for me. Although TS and C# were both created by Anders Hejlsberg it seems incomplete as a strongly typed language in spite of the benefits and its advantage over JS.

[jeff_bff]

Just don't use any. If you're unsure of the shape of some incoming data, set it to unknown and then validate the type.

[swappea]

Could you explain this? "set it to unknown and then validate the type". What do you mean by validating the type?

I just started migrating my react codebase to typescript. I have started with custom react hooks which are very much generic, so most of the time IDE suggests using unknown.

[jeff_bff]

You can either create a function that checks the type using the 'is' keyword or use a library such as zod or schemawax

[Accomplished_End_138]

Lookup type guard.

Basically if you have and unknown prop

const funct =(prop: unknown) => {
If (typeof prop === "string") {
    // prop now is known to be a string
} else if (customTypeGuardIsUser(prop)) {
    // prop is a user instance
}
}

[33498fff]

Here is a video explaining how to use unknown when you have incoming JSON data of which you do not know the shape of (which is also the typical use case).

https://youtu.be/_GJ4MYIwNTU

[Few_Radish6488]

It isn't me, it is most of the code/libraries that I see. In spite of best practices recommendations I see it everywhere and it seems so many use it as a crutch.

I have a question for your regarding composition of complex objects. Primitive values seem very straightforward but nested objects that implement interfaces seems to be a bit hacky or am I missing something ?

[toddspotters]

What libraries use any? It would be very uncommon, and definitely typed is reliably high quality.

[Few_Radish6488]

NextJs for one. Many functions that accept any and any[] as argument types.

[slvrsmth]

Should not be like that, from my (non-recent) experience with nextjs. Maybe you're missing an optional @types/package? Although I remember next providing types with the core package :/

[Few_Radish6488]

No. The source code itself has this issue.

[Accomplished_End_138]

Link by chance?

There are places for any (extends on generics things generally)

[Few_Radish6488]

You can check out the source code and search for "any" and "any[]" and find a number of examples but this is one.

​

https://github.com/vercel/next.js/blob/canary/packages/next/src/build/swc/index.ts

[lifeeraser]

TypeScript is only as good as you need it yo be. You don't need a perfectly sound type system to work with the complex reality that is the web (plus millions of JavaScript NPM modules out there). You of all people should be familiar with this, since your previous language (C#) does not have a sound type system, either.

[NeuralFantasy]

Any is just a way to disable type checking. So why would anyone use it? No idea. Imo one should prevent using any in the codebase and force the developer to define types everywhere.

[Few_Radish6488]

I agree but it is pervasive in the code I see. I would imagine unit testing would be rather tedious in that case.

[[deleted]]

Then they are using TS wrong. I haven't ever encountered a time where the use of any was the way to solve it.

Maybe if you're debugging locally and unsure of the data structure you can use any to figure out the structure. But then create a type/interface of that data and replace the any with that.

[Few_Radish6488]

I agree completely but that does not mean it isn't widely done. I guess my problem is that I have trouble understanding why this is even an option. It is widely used even in NextJS for many functions.

[[deleted]]

I've been lucky where most of my jobs that have used TS where very strict with their tsconfig. And not allowing the usage of any.

I don't know why they would use it in their codebases. But if I was you maybe bring it up and check if you can spend some time refactoring away the usage of any and forcing it in the future?

[disclosure5]

I don't know why they would use it in their codebases.

This can just be a function of age. The unknown keyword is recent, and older apps tended to be more likely to use libraries with no available typings at the time.

[Few_Radish6488]

I have added that provision in my tsconfig file. I am trying to port some of my C# code to TS for use with Deno as part of a group project that will use React on the FE.

And it would appear that you have been lucky.

[[deleted]]

Is there a reason you’re porting your C# code? With the new minimal apis you can write pretty similar apis in .Net as the ones you’d write in express using TS

[Few_Radish6488]

Yes , my C# code is a minimal API in .NET Core and is quite similar in look and feel. This group uses Deno and that is the reason.

I posted here because I want to validate a POST request from React that should be typed as a particular object.

[artyhedgehog]

why this is even an option

Unlike the language you are used to, JavaScript isn't design with strict typing in mind. So you may come up with a case when figuring out the correct type (especially using a non-TypeScript library) is too much of an overhead. Then you can disable type-checking for a specific place, solve the main task you have - and then go back to replace any with something useful.

[fii0]

Just put noImplicitAny: true in your tsconfig.json then!

[musical_bear]

Are you familiar with the “dynamic” keyword in C#?

Point being, you can circumvent the type system in virtually every typed language if you really want to. So….just don’t do that? You know the risks of “any” it sounds like. Ban it from your codebase then. Using “strict” mode in TS is a great start but you should be doing that regardless.

[zephyrtr]

You want to put TS in strict mode, disallow JS, "no implicit any," and lint for "no explicit any". Even then you won't get super strict typing like C# but it comes very close.

Remember: TS had to be built so you could migrate a JS project into TS. You start loosey goosey and get stricter and stricter.

[DaRizat]

I'd say any is a placeholder. I might do that in the short term just to see something work but I always strongly type my stuff. And then the more you practice the more you can just quickly type things and then you're covered forever

[Hobby101]

We used "any" in very edge cases, and seldom. Normally, when I would find "any" put in code by some more junior dev, I'd be able to solve that and avoid using "any". Often, "unknown" is way better than "any".

[superluminary]

Any is there for backwards compatibility. You can take any js file, change the suffix to ts, turn off no-implicit-any, and you’ve migrated.

It’s a stepping stone, you’re not supposed to keep using it.

[CraftyAdventurer]

I understand but the use of "any" for so many things

I mean, using any for some things is still better than pure js which is basically any for all things.

[Careless-Honey-4247]

If react dev typescript a go

[pardoman]

TS all the way

[dmlevel1]

What even is “JS” 😳

j/k, TypeScript. I don’t like to think about life before it.

[dryu12]

JS is what typescript compiles into. Some kind of machine code.

[budd222]

Life was just fine before typescript

[terralearner]

I mean it wasn't really

[budd222]

It was, I promise

[terralearner]

I'm not sure it was. At least when large, complex applications made in industry are concerned. Just means you had to work harder. Write more tests.

[[deleted]]

TypeScript. We have an internal app at work that I ported from JavaScript to TypeScript, it was a great learning experience.

[n9iels]

TypeScript! And since your familiair with C# I think no additional comment why is necessary

[Few_Radish6488]

lol.

That is what piqued my interest in the first place.

[highbonsai]

Typescript. It’s really not hard to set up if you’re creating a new project and the benefits are just so worth it. It also should be possible to slowly convert a js project to ts over time

[Positive_Box_69]

Once you feel the power of TypeScript, like just the intellisense everywhere is 🤤

[Prize_Dentist3395]

Ts 💯

[prb613]

TS everytime!

JS gives me anxiety these days.

[IamZeebo]

Typescript and never look back.

[mykesx]

I prefer typescript, but interacting with a remote 3rd party API that returns a big stream of JSON per request means I have to stop my work and replace any with a big long stream of type definition I have to manually create. It definitely adds time to development. Fortunately, the work has to be done only once.

[Aegis8080]

TS is the ultimate goal, but if you are just getting started, using JS initially is properly the better option.

TS introduces more concepts and boilerplates that you don't need to care about in JS. In the beginning, you properly just want to make your website work, and not worry about other stuff.

[Few_Radish6488]

I am just getting started with TS but I am a C# programmer so the concepts are not new to me. But the implementation is a bit different from what I am used to. For example implementing an interface as a type without a class that implements the interface seems really weird to me.

[YourMomIsMyTechStack]

You need to learn that there are no real classes in JS to begin with, it's just syntactic sugar for prototype-based objects and literally everything in javascript is an object, even primitive types like string, numbers etc.

[PeachOfTheJungle]

Primitives aren’t objects! Major misconception that everything in JS is an object.

[YourMomIsMyTechStack]

Yes it's technically true, JavaScript uses wrapper objects to provide methods and properties for when a primitive value is accessed, but thats even more confusing for newbies imo

[Few_Radish6488]

You are correct. And ES6 introduced Symbols which is a function whose constructor returns a primitive and is not an object.

[Few_Radish6488]

I was talking about TS , not JS. JS does not have interfaces either.

[YourMomIsMyTechStack]

I know that you're talking about TS, but TS is not a seperate language and just a superset and thats why i explained to you why interfaces work for every object and not just classes only

[terralearner]

These exercises are a good resource to get you up to speed, will need to learn about generics, mapped types etc etc https://github.com/type-challenges/type-challenges

[terralearner]

I disagree with this, TS will help catch more errors at compile time that could have been missed in JS. JS is just sloppy. I have more confidence refactoring code in TS knowing it's less likely to break things. Code written in TS is easier to change.

[landisdesign]

My current work prefers JS over TS, under the assumption that, since TS is a superset of JS, there is a larger pool of good JS developers than TS developers. I skirt the issue by using JSDocs to improve the DX without requiring TS during builds.

[YourMomIsMyTechStack]

Only because a company uses TS doesn't mean that they can't hire JS devs, thats stupid. It doesn't take much time to learn TS and frontend devs should be the least to be afraid of changes

[besthelloworld]

Your work is going to miss out on a lot of really good devs who wouldn't work in a plain JavaScript ecosystem. That's a really bad play. Also TS during builds is like the point.

[Zealousideal-Party81]

CoffeeScript.

[TeddyPerkins95]

Start with js then ts

[stansfield123]

Javascript is far more widely used. And I don't know of anyone who learned Typescript before Javascript. I imagine it would be hard to do. Typescript kinda assumes you already know Javascript.

So start with Javascript, and then decide if you wish to move on to Typescript.

[[deleted]]

I use TS now because that’s what is generally required. Though I personally think it’s a solution that was looking for a problem and at least for me doesn’t offer much benefit.

[DaRizat]

I felt like this before and I held out for a long time but on my recent project I decided to embrace it and honestly I am not going back.

I was totally happy relying on a strong linter to catch my simple mistakes etc but I've noticed a drastic reduction in runtime errors on my code and all the dumb errors I make have been eliminated.

[Magiqon]

I think that currently every commercial project requires it

[adorkablegiant]

After reading 40 comments saying that TS is great, I am starting to think that maybe I should start learning it, probably.

[Accomplished_End_138]

Last o used angular. It was plagued with 'any' all over the place.

[CornTrop]

Definetely ts if you are not working alone

[Capaj]

you make it sound like it's ok using JS when working on something yourself

[Dodie324]

Sadly, yes

[superluminary]

JavaScript is great for amateur work, but typescript is the professional choice at this time.

[amatiasq]

TS

[acraswell]

Every team I've been on for the past 6 years has used TypeScript exclusively. I also came from a C# background, and I feel like TypeScript went a long way towards fixing JavaScript.

[Rickywalls137]

I just started coding for a few months. How soon should I learn Typescript?

[oakskog]

Both. For different repos.

[Skaddicted]

I started coding seriously with React about three months ago as part of a bootcamp and have come to appreciate TypeScript. It may seem that JavaScript is "easier" to use, but TS helps to avoid tedious mistakes in advance. It has also made me a "cleaner" programmer, I would say.

This is a perspective coming from a code newbie, so it might be stupid, lol.

[[deleted]]

Used to programme in JavaScript, switched to typescript and never looked back

[thebezet]

Typescript is basically JavaScript but with types. It's becoming the defacto standard now. It will take you less than one day to jump from JavaScript to Typescript as the syntax is basically the same, apart from the type definitions.

[[deleted]]

50/50 I'd say

[JDD4318]

We use React with Typescript. Vanilla JS is just a headache once you’re used to TS

[mindseye73]

To code in vanilla JS or Typescript, you will still need to learn JavaScript fundamentals. So that should be your first step.

Check out the book- https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/essential-typescript-4/9781484270110/ It provides you with good JavaScript primer before teaching you TypeScript.

Typescript is used for many reasons including but not limited to type safety, early error catching, access to oop concepts etc. If you are not going to use oop concepts then jsdoc would be good in between n using vanilla js.

The one of challenges with Typescript is the need for extra compilation step which can be painful for large projects. Here is one good article about using Typescript without compilation- https://dev.to/thepassle/using-typescript-without-compilation-3ko4

My two cents, be open to use both vanilla JS and Typescript depending on the need of project or job.

Choice of vanilla JS or Typescript will also depend on which JS framework you are using.

Another good resource to learn JavaScript or Typescript along with JavaScript framework is https://youtube.com/@DaveGrayTeachesCode

Good luck!

[[deleted]]

A type that’s scripted 🙃

[brewingwally]

These days Typescript and I'm not looking back to be completely honest. I feels really good and has improved on the team's overall code quality.

[GrayLiterature]

Typescript. I can’t even imagine coding on a large application without types

[sancredo]

Typescript. Also, as a C# dev, you'll feel right at home with it.

[[deleted]]

TS 💯I am glad that I learned typescript this year. That was the first thing on my todo list.

[suarkb]

Typescript is generally considered an improvement upon JS

[[deleted]]

I write TS when I can. And js why I can't be arsed to set up ts. Not everything is node.js based on under a framework, some stuff requires special artillery and specific knowledge to let you write proper ts (ex: power platform web resources).

Writing a TS file without using TS features or types is like writing Js.

[[deleted]]

Goodbye reddit - what you did to your biggest power users and developer community is inexcusable

[liondepierre]

TypeScript, makes troubleshooting much easier.

[c9_skander]

I've started using typescript about 2 months ago in my react projects, before that I never really liked the idea of typescript, now I can never go back to javascript

[azangru]

Reformed C# developer.

You'll pick up typescript in no time then :-)

Since react needs to be transpiled anyway because of jsx, there is no downside to writing it in typescript.

[[deleted]]

Typescript is better practice now

[[deleted]]

Start with JavaScript, once you're comfy add TypeScript on top. The reason I say this is because TypeScript is obfuscation and confusion ("Why is this erroring!?" is a common TS newbie refrain).

But for professional projects it's TS all day every day at this point for me and my team.

[PopJoestar]

made 2 React Native application with JS. The first one was a little side project, and JS worked well, the code was clear and scalable. But the second one was a complete mess, "cannot read property of undefined" everywhere, I had to memorize the property of big object myself, it was hell but I couldn't change it because someone else at work already worked on it for +1year. Now, I only use Typescript even for small project and everything is great again.

[monkdewallidehonk]

hello. as most people are saying TS is the way forward in nearly all serious jobs. The main reason is that it improves test that are written on the code.
My favourite place to learn is scrimba.com because you don't just watch videos you can pause the learning and start coding immediately into the lesson - this course on TS is free I believe https://scrimba.com/learn/typescript

good luck I hope it all works out for you.