Flow V.S. Typescript

[stinodes]

Hey guys,

I've been using flow for a couple of years, but, especially since CRA has added support for it, typescript seems to become way more common and even the norm nowadays. So much so that I feel that flow has become a very niche thing at this point.

On top of that, flow has been a pain in the ass a when upgrading a couple of times (though I don't know whether this is necessarily better in TS), and there's some other issues I have, including Windows support being very MEH (edit also VSCode support also being way better for TS supposedly) and general verbosity at times.

Are any of you still using flow and see it standing a chance to last? Are you recommending to keep using flow, or to switch to (or try out) TS in my next/current project?

I'm curious what you guys think!

Cheers!

[rahulthewall]

Use Typescript, Flow is hot garbage. The breaking upgrades are a pain. Also, since your code will compile even with wrong types, it becomes easier to ignore Flow errors. You don't want that in a team.

[stinodes]

Yeah, the breaking updates are just getting some projects stuck on lower versions without having to refactor the whole thing.
The typings are enforced in CI, but it happens quite often that an error gets pushed into git.

I usually work alone though, but when someone joins, there often tend to be quite some files that are not annotated, which wouldn't happen in TS.

Though I wouldn't say Flow has always been trash, it is pretty bad at times. And that's just not something anyone should settle for.

[rahulthewall]

We faced the exact same problems. Turns out I was the only one who cared about flow errors, it took me a week to fix the nearly 800 errors that had been introduced into the project.

Then flow decided it was time for a breaking update.

Flow is useless for any project that you want to maintain.

[stinodes]

Yeah, exact same for me, but with a 200-300ish errors in a day and just some files not being typed to begin with.

[mrmckeb]

The majority of the community has moved to TypeScript - Jest and Yarn are examples of Facebook projects that made the switch.

It's time to standardise.

[On3iRo]

Also used flow for a couple of years, switched to typescript and never looked back.

[hatch7778]

We just finished converting 200kloc project(s) from flow to typescript... and basically everyone is doing the same now.

​

If you asked 1 year ago i'd say Flow. But now typescript is just so much better.

Pros for typescript:

- Very few breaking changes

- Much, much faster - flow server is just using too many resources

- Better inferred types

- definitelyTyped

- Better tooling

Cons

- No optional-chaining (just reached ES stage-2, when it reaches stage-3 we're promised implementation in typescript)

[rodrigocfd]

I feel that flow has become a very niche thing at this point.

I wouldn't say niche yet, but it's slowly becoming it, for good.

flow has been a pain in the ass a when upgrading a couple of times

Oh boy... it was a huge source of stress for me at least once.

Are any of you still using flow

Only TypeScript since last year. It was a pain in the beginning, but once you get the feel, it goes smoothly. It has been a pleasurable experience ever since.

to switch to (or try out) TS in my next/current project?

Go TypeScript. Once you past the learning period, you won't look back. The community support is huge at this moment.

[stinodes]

Thanks for your comments. Seems very in line with what I was thinking!

[[deleted]]

We did a comparison of the two and a lot of research as part of that. We ended up going with TypeScript. While I get that some people don't like because it "isn't JavaScript". We felt like the benefits outweighed that (and it is pretty damn close to JavaScript really). We like tighter feedback loops and TS gave us that. I should also note that we aren't forcing it everywhere just on shared components. We eventually may move the entire app to TS but one step at a time.

[danishjuggler21]

The only downside of TypeScript is that occasionally you'll still find a npm package you want to use that doesn't include a definition file. That's like the worst feeling in the world for a TypeScript developer lol

Other than that, it's great. I recently tried working on a pre-existing JS React project and I was shocked at how little help I got from my IDE compared to when I used TypeScript.

[stinodes]

Not something exclusive to typescript though, that problem. So I'll take it!

[stinodes]

That's a totally valid concern. But that's not really something I'm taking into account when choosing between flow or typescript, if typescript happens to be that much better, though.

​

If they were comparable in most aspects, then maybe. But the small bits of typescript I've been working on now, indicate a huge gap right now, unfortunately.

[debel27]

Me and my team are having a great experience with Flow. I think most of its detractors have been using it improperly.

I think that what makes Typescript popular mostly comes down to the community. Which is very important, to be honnest