As someone who is relatively new to webdev stuff, I gotta ask… what is the point of typescript? Like, is it faster than JS, does it have more functions or smth? To me it just looks like JS with extra steps and a really, REALLY cursed way to declare variables.
Types help you prevent errors while writing the code instead of while running. That’s a massive benefit, as it literally makes a lot of errors impossible (as long as you don’t work around it) - otherwise you have to write a lot of tests to get the same guarantees, and you could always miss something by doing that.
The other benefit is that it allows other developers to understand your code very, very quickly. Types describe what your data looks like - there is nothing more important in programming than that!
When you install an NPM library and your editor gives you hints about parameter types, return types etc., that’s all Typescript types at work.
After maintaining a huge JS codebase for years and finally upgrading it to TS, my life is so much easier. Refactoring is faster and less error-prone. I no longer have to manually document the parameter/return types for every function. I don’t have that gnawing “oh damn, what if I missed something” feeling whenever I make changes.
Yes it’s a bit more work up front but it pays dividends on larger codebases.
No, it is slower than JS but it can be compiled to JS. The point of typescript is bringing static (or generally talking, predictable) types to variables, so that treating erroneously a number as a string should be more difficult. In a large codebase, it’s easy to make mistakes and debugging is not instantaneous but it needs time. Typescript helps here. You write more code but it helps you out later
I don’t have much experience with TS, but in other strongly typed language it goes even further than string vs number.
For example you can have two numbers Distance and TimeInSeconds and even though they are both numbers, the type system can make sure that you won’t do distance+time.
It can also let you do distance/time and return Speed type.
It will prevent many logical errors even though everything is technically a number.
