4 ms·

Why the hatred of TypeScript? The vast majority of TypeScript devs tend to love the language in my experience

isoskeles 8y ago
Every single person I've met who "hates" typescript really "likes" javascript and was one day forced to start working on switching over to static typing. Maybe not this person's case, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone has another reason, but I seriously haven't heard anyone else with a strong opinion against typescript founded upon any other context. I could probably google around for other reasons.
- agumonkey 8y ago
  I can totally see someone used to soft mutable js objects going insane in ml land.
whatshisface 8y ago
>The vast majority of TypeScript devs tend to love the language That sounds kind of like saying, "the vast majority of people with cilantro in their burritos like cilantro."
- Insanity 8y ago
  it does, kind of, because sometimes you need to fit yourself to the project / company that already had some codebase before you. So I sometimes interact with languages that I like a bit less whilst working. But in general, yeah, it's kind of like that saying :)
- akiselev 8y ago
  Due to Javascript Stockholm Syndrome it's more like "the vast majority of people forced to eat burritos at their day job like cilantro on their burritos."
int_19h 8y ago
I suspect it was more a hatred of the web stack in general.
fouc 8y ago
I suspect that developers tend to fall into roughly two kinds of backgrounds. That is static/compiled (c/java/etc) languages vs dynamic/interpreted (ruby/python/js/etc) languages. Perhaps this leads to a different coding styles & expectations. The former end up with a preference for strong typing. Perhaps their coding style also depends on that. The latter don't seem to find types to be a source of bugs.
- akiselev 8y ago
  To me it seems more like two wildly different forms of PTSD. For the former group (those who prefer static typing), unmaintainable and poorly documented spaghetti code has been the most identifiable source of pain in their career while for the latter, it has been long iteration times due to bureaucratic nightmares caused by compiler and management. Like early childhood experiences, each programmer I've discussed the subject with seems to have their own unique professional experience that has molded their opinions. It's less a religion and more a coping mechanism for bad experiences.
  - jondubois 8y ago
    For me, bureaucracy and TypeScript go hand in hand. There are benefits to using TypeScript, but they're not worth the problems. TypeScript gives an illusion of added productivity and safety but when you actually look at results, bug density is exactly the same as JavaScript. As a TS developer, most of your time is spent on catering to the compiler's complaints, but doing so doesn't actually yield any benefits in terms of producing high quality software. TS and TSLint are bandaid solutions which don't address the root problems behind what makes code bad (which 99% of the time comes down to bad design/architecture). TS simply cannot prevent bad design/architecture - It can only formalize it. It's nice to have linted code with everything typed and statically locked into place but that means very little in terms of actual code quality.
    - akiselev 8y ago
      The reason Typescript has been so successful is that many of us don't have a choice in whether the beauracracy exists or not and have to pick up the pieces. Typescript is, by definition, a bandaid. That's what it was designed for.

Every single person I've met who "hates" typescript really "likes" javascript and was one day forced to start working on switching over to static typing. Maybe not this person's case, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone has another reason, but I seriously haven't heard anyone else with a strong opinion against typescript founded upon any other context. I could probably google around for other reasons.

agumonkey 8y ago
I can totally see someone used to soft mutable js objects going insane in ml land.

whatshisface 8y ago

>The vast majority of TypeScript devs tend to love the language That sounds kind of like saying, "the vast majority of people with cilantro in their burritos like cilantro."

Insanity 8y ago
it does, kind of, because sometimes you need to fit yourself to the project / company that already had some codebase before you. So I sometimes interact with languages that I like a bit less whilst working. But in general, yeah, it's kind of like that saying :)
akiselev 8y ago
Due to Javascript Stockholm Syndrome it's more like "the vast majority of people forced to eat burritos at their day job like cilantro on their burritos."

int_19h 8y ago

I suspect it was more a hatred of the web stack in general.

fouc 8y ago

I suspect that developers tend to fall into roughly two kinds of backgrounds. That is static/compiled (c/java/etc) languages vs dynamic/interpreted (ruby/python/js/etc) languages. Perhaps this leads to a different coding styles & expectations. The former end up with a preference for strong typing. Perhaps their coding style also depends on that. The latter don't seem to find types to be a source of bugs.

akiselev 8y ago
To me it seems more like two wildly different forms of PTSD. For the former group (those who prefer static typing), unmaintainable and poorly documented spaghetti code has been the most identifiable source of pain in their career while for the latter, it has been long iteration times due to bureaucratic nightmares caused by compiler and management. Like early childhood experiences, each programmer I've discussed the subject with seems to have their own unique professional experience that has molded their opinions. It's less a religion and more a coping mechanism for bad experiences.
- jondubois 8y ago
  For me, bureaucracy and TypeScript go hand in hand. There are benefits to using TypeScript, but they're not worth the problems. TypeScript gives an illusion of added productivity and safety but when you actually look at results, bug density is exactly the same as JavaScript. As a TS developer, most of your time is spent on catering to the compiler's complaints, but doing so doesn't actually yield any benefits in terms of producing high quality software. TS and TSLint are bandaid solutions which don't address the root problems behind what makes code bad (which 99% of the time comes down to bad design/architecture). TS simply cannot prevent bad design/architecture - It can only formalize it. It's nice to have linted code with everything typed and statically locked into place but that means very little in terms of actual code quality.
  - akiselev 8y ago
    The reason Typescript has been so successful is that many of us don't have a choice in whether the beauracracy exists or not and have to pick up the pieces. Typescript is, by definition, a bandaid. That's what it was designed for.