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TypeScript (or the obligatory post about it)
TypeScript (or the obligatory post about it)
October 2, 2012

Like many of you, I’ve been itching to see what Anders had up his sleeve and I wasn’t disappointed yesterday when they announcedTypeScript. After teaching all day, I took a quick look at TypeScript (and I do mean quick).

There was a lot of buzz yesterday and the response seemed to be in one of two camps (for the most part):

  • From some: Microsoft is Saving the World from JavaScript
  • From others: Microsoft is ruining JavaScript and is Just Recreating CoffeeScript

I think I am in the middle of this. TypeScript reminds me a lot of LESS. What I mean by that is that I think the smart thing they did was make all JavaScript valid TypeScript. In case that isn’t clear, TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript. This means that they’re adding some features to JavaScript to help with large, enterprise sized codebases including:

  • Classes
  • Modules
  • Interfaces
  • Parameter Typing

What I really do like is that, unlike CoffeeScript and other similar projects, is that it is JavaScript. That means that I only need to use TypeScript when I need these particular features. It should make it easier to add this into existing projects without having to do a whole new language. (Also, I am stay in my comfortable curly brace, semi-colon filled world ;)

Have you had a chance to see what it’s like? If so, what do you think?