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Is there a way to migrate jsdoc-annotated JavaScript code over to TS, and is TS's minifier as good as Google's closure-compiler yet?

smt88 7y ago
I don't know of prod-quality tools to migrate from jsdoc to TS. TS does have comment-level typing, so you can get the benefits without transpiling anything (similar to Flow). TS pointedly does not minify output. It does the opposite: try to generate code that a human might have written. It's very easy to incorporate TS into a Babel or Webpack build pipeline though, so you can use a purpose-built minifier of your choice.
vbitz 7y ago
Visual Studio Code has a "Code Fix" that can automatically copies JSDoc into TypeScript annotations. This can be done to an entire file at once. TypeScript does not come with a minifier. The code it produces is compatible with the target version of JavaScript (e.g. compile ES6 modules into CommonJS) but unminified.
- tannhaeuser 7y ago
  I see. closure-compiler's "advanced" mode takes advantage of jsdoc type info for minifying so I guess generic syntactical minification won't compress as much for the time being.
  - evmar 7y ago
    We (Google TS team) maintain a tool[1] that transforms TS types into jsdoc types for the purpose of feeding them into 'advanced' mode. We also (to answer the grandparent question) maintain a tool[2] that converts Closure-annotated TS into JS. (Why both ways? We transition JS->TS and check it in as the code the user works with, while we use the TS->JS one within the compiler at optimization time.) [1] https://github.com/angular/tsickle https://github.com/angular/tsickle [2] 'gents', in this repo https://github.com/angular/clutz https://github.com/angular/clutz
HDevo 7y ago
The closest things I know of are Clutz and Gents, maintained here: https://github.com/angular/clutz https://github.com/angular/clutz. They work with Closure-annotated JS (with JSDoc) though; not sure if it fits your use case.
bpicolo 7y ago
The Angular project has a package for translating TS -> Closure, which appears to be used at Google in some capacity. https://github.com/angular/tsickle https://github.com/angular/tsickle
- Nitramp 7y ago
  Yes, we use that to use TS together with Closure for all our TS code at Google. It's a bit difficult to hook up though, and we haven't had the cycles to make the open source version user friendly, I'm afraid :-(
  - bpicolo 7y ago
    It would be really cool to see the user-friendly version (though that might lead to a rabbit hole on the Closure side, too). The Closure compiler remains awesome, just difficult to make use of successfully.
    - evmar 7y ago
      You might try out https://github.com/theseanl/tscc https://github.com/theseanl/tscc , which aims to do this.

smt88 7y ago

I don't know of prod-quality tools to migrate from jsdoc to TS. TS does have comment-level typing, so you can get the benefits without transpiling anything (similar to Flow). TS pointedly does not minify output. It does the opposite: try to generate code that a human might have written. It's very easy to incorporate TS into a Babel or Webpack build pipeline though, so you can use a purpose-built minifier of your choice.

vbitz 7y ago

Visual Studio Code has a "Code Fix" that can automatically copies JSDoc into TypeScript annotations. This can be done to an entire file at once. TypeScript does not come with a minifier. The code it produces is compatible with the target version of JavaScript (e.g. compile ES6 modules into CommonJS) but unminified.

tannhaeuser 7y ago
I see. closure-compiler's "advanced" mode takes advantage of jsdoc type info for minifying so I guess generic syntactical minification won't compress as much for the time being.
- evmar 7y ago
  We (Google TS team) maintain a tool[1] that transforms TS types into jsdoc types for the purpose of feeding them into 'advanced' mode. We also (to answer the grandparent question) maintain a tool[2] that converts Closure-annotated TS into JS. (Why both ways? We transition JS->TS and check it in as the code the user works with, while we use the TS->JS one within the compiler at optimization time.) [1] https://github.com/angular/tsickle https://github.com/angular/tsickle [2] 'gents', in this repo https://github.com/angular/clutz https://github.com/angular/clutz

HDevo 7y ago

The closest things I know of are Clutz and Gents, maintained here: https://github.com/angular/clutz https://github.com/angular/clutz. They work with Closure-annotated JS (with JSDoc) though; not sure if it fits your use case.

bpicolo 7y ago

The Angular project has a package for translating TS -> Closure, which appears to be used at Google in some capacity. https://github.com/angular/tsickle https://github.com/angular/tsickle

Nitramp 7y ago
Yes, we use that to use TS together with Closure for all our TS code at Google. It's a bit difficult to hook up though, and we haven't had the cycles to make the open source version user friendly, I'm afraid :-(
- bpicolo 7y ago
  It would be really cool to see the user-friendly version (though that might lead to a rabbit hole on the Closure side, too). The Closure compiler remains awesome, just difficult to make use of successfully.
  - evmar 7y ago
    You might try out https://github.com/theseanl/tscc https://github.com/theseanl/tscc , which aims to do this.