Type annotations3/23/2023 When building is no longer required, some developers may choose to forgo code optimization and deploy typed code directly to production, resulting in wasted network resources. Luckily, tools already used in most projects, such as the TypeScript compiler and Babel, could handle this. Editors could even conceal type annotations for developers that didn’t want to deal with them.Īlthough eventually, this proposal would allow for typed code without a build step, there would be a transition period where build tools were still required. Developers would not be required to use types in their own code, and there would be no compatibility issues when using dependencies that did choose to use types. Consider this snippet of TypeScript: function loadData ( url : string, limit : number ) : Promise Ī key point to keep in mind is that types would be optional in this proposal. Neither of these is very attractive pre-compiling adds complexity to the development process, and comment-typed code is very verbose. In these cases, a developer that wants to use types must either pre-compile TypeScript code or add types using a comment-based syntax. While many tools and workflows can implicitly handle TypeScript code, others cannot. This proposal would also help in those situations where a build step isn’t convenient or isn’t possible. Popular editors such as VSCode already come with support for handling typed code, so no additional effort should be required to make use of the types. Running typed JavaScript wouldn’t require a build tool, which is one less thing developers will have to install and configure. The types-as-comments proposal could help with all of these issues.īaking types into the language would make them much easier to get started with and use. Even when a developer has adopted static typing for their own projects, they will often need to use packages for which types are an afterthought, or are maintained separately from the code by a third party. Both of these options add overhead to the development process, and that overhead is part of the reason types aren’t used more often. Developers have two options: they can use a language that’s almost, but not quite, JavaScript, and that requires a build step (outside of the Deno runtime), or they annotate JavaScript using JSDoc or Flow comments. Next provides its own type definitions, so you do not need this installed.Īlthough static typing is popular, using it can still be a bit of a pain. It’s common to see messages like this when running npm install in TypeScript projects: npm WARN deprecated This is a stub types definition. As static typing has caught on, packages that relied on externally maintained types are starting to manage their own types. TypeScript has ranked in the top 5 most well-loved languages for the last several annual Stack Overflow developer surveys. Static typing in the web community has become increasingly popular over the last few years. Types would have no effect on code at runtime. ![]() JavaScript code would not be required to have type annotations, nor would runtimes be required to process annotations (beyond recognizing them as comments). It describes a purely additive type syntax for JavaScript the additional syntax would not affect the current semantics of JavaScript. The scope of the proposal is very constrained. Browsers and other runtimes could treat the types as comments, completely ignoring them. Tools such as the TypeScript and Flow compilers could use these annotations to type check code. Type annotations would be optional and would have no impact on the JavaScript code at runtime. In a nutshell, the proposal seeks to add a subset of TypeScript’s type syntax to the JavaScript language. Today, static typing is one of the most desired JavaScript features, and adding some level of type syntax to the language would provide several benefits. ![]() ![]() The utility and ergonomics of static types for JavaScript have been debated since before TypeScript’s inception some developers feel that types add needless complexity to the language, while others feel that types add a much-needed safety net. In March 2022, a Stage 0 proposal was announced that would add TypeScript-like type annotations to the JavaScript language.
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