The popularity of TypeScript has been increasing steadily over the years, and more professional developers choose TypeScript in their projects over JavaScript. Angular, one of the largest frontend frameworks, is using Typescript.
WHY?
Today, we delve into the advantages of adopting TypeScript and how it can enhance your development process. Let’s dive in!
Firstly…
What Exactly is Typescript ?
TypeScript is a strongly typed programming language that builds on JavaScript, and gives you better tooling. This definition is straight off the TypeScript language website. In simple words:
“ TypeScript is basically JavaScript code with special syntax for types! “
Worry not! TypeScript is not necessarily an entirely different programming language. It simply adds flavor to your JavaScript and helps you write code that is type-safe. End of the day, the TypeScript code converts to JavaScript, and can run anywhere JavaScript runs.
Typescript is Getting Popular
In the StackOverflow Developer Survey of 2022, TypeScript is a close second to Rust and Python, as the most wanted technology of the year. Close to 17% of the developers have voted for TypeScript and say that they want to continue using it. This also means, there are a lot of opportunities for you in the job market as a TypeScript developer. The chart from the State of JS survey of 2022 some numbers on JavaScript vs. Typescript balance. About 20% of the respondents are using 100% TypeScript, which is a huge shift towards TypeScript, in recent years.
Why Typescript ?
Below is a summary of why TypeScript is preferred these days instead of using plain JavaScript. Let’s touch on each of these points mentioned below :
Enhanced Productivity and Maintainability
TypeScript introduces static typing to JavaScript, enabling developers to catch errors during development rather than at runtime. By explicitly defining variable types, TypeScript provides better tooling support, intelligent code completion, and improved error detection. This leads to fewer bugs, faster debugging, and increased productivity. Additionally, as your codebase grows, TypeScript’s strong typing helps maintain code quality and makes refactoring easier.
Improved Code Readability and Documentation
With TypeScript, you can write more expressive code by adding type annotations to variables, parameters, and return values. These annotations serve as self-documentation, making it easier for other developers (including future you) to understand your code. TypeScript helps create more readable and maintainable codebases, reducing the learning curve for new team members and promoting better collaboration.
Robust Tooling and IDE Support
TypeScript comes with a robust set of tools and IDE support that enhances the development experience. Popular code editors like Visual Studio Code, WebStorm, and Atom provide comprehensive TypeScript integration, including features like intelligent auto-completion, refactoring support, and real-time error checking. TypeScript’s tooling ecosystem also includes powerful linters, formatters, and testing frameworks, empowering developers to write clean and reliable code.
Seamless Integration with JavaScript Ecosystem
TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, meaning that any valid JavaScript code is also valid TypeScript code. This allows you to leverage existing JavaScript libraries and frameworks seamlessly while gradually adopting TypeScript features. You can start by converting a few files to TypeScript and progressively migrate the entire codebase. This flexibility ensures a smooth transition and enables you to benefit from TypeScript’s advantages without disrupting your current development workflows.
Strong Type Checking and Error Prevention
One of the core strengths of TypeScript is its static type checking. By specifying types, TypeScript catches potential errors during compilation, such as type mismatches, misspelled properties, or incorrect method invocations. These compile-time checks help prevent runtime errors, reduce debugging time, and improve the stability of your applications. TypeScript empowers you to catch issues early and deliver more reliable software to your users.
Growing Community and Adoption
TypeScript has gained significant traction in the development community, with numerous companies and open-source projects adopting it. The community-driven nature of TypeScript ensures active development, regular updates, and a wealth of learning resources. You can tap into this vibrant ecosystem to learn from experienced developers, access libraries specifically built for TypeScript, and find support for your development challenges.
By choosing TypeScript over JavaScript, you unlock a powerful set of features that enhance your development process, improve code quality, and boost productivity. Whether you’re working on small projects or large-scale applications, TypeScript’s static typing proves invaluable in catching errors, improving collaboration, and ensuring robustness.
With its continuously evolving potential, these incredible benefits of TypeScript over JavaScript make TS the first choice for today’s developers. One can see the booming potential of TS language over JS, making it the future of web application development in 2023.
