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> Not to mention the majority of Node and FE developers who continue to use JS. I don't think this is true any more. According to https://2020.stateofjs.com/en

by llimos 5y ago

> Not to mention the majority of Node and FE developers who continue to use JS. I don't think this is true any more. According to https://2020.stateofjs.com/en-US/technologies/javascript-flavors/ https://2020.stateofjs.com/en-US/technologies/javascript-fla... 78% of JS devs actively use TypeScript

nightpool 5y ago
I've never used TypeScript. I've also never heard of this survey before, and I certainly didn't fill it out. I don't think these two facts are unrelated—according to their data, the vast plurality (48%, almost a majority) of the people who filled out that survey did so because they were on the mailing list for it. It's by no means a random or representative sample of the community. People who are more interested in surveys & new technology and are more likely to sign up to answer future surveys. Meanwhile, the StackOverflow 2020 survey, which reached twice as many JS developers (54k vs 23k), saw that only half of JS developers reported using TypeScript. (not counting any developers that reported using TS but not JS, which would drive the percentage further down). Again though—people who are more likely to fill out random surveys are going to be more plugged in to new technologies and more likely to adopt them. I've never used Typescript, and I don't plan to. I don't care about static typing. It's nice occasionally, but I don't find that the structural problems I need to solve day to day when working on large codebases are the sorts best solved by static typing. When working on hobby projects, I don't use JS compilers at all, the set of JS supported by modern browsers is already very expressive and iterating very quickly.
- norman784 5y ago
  I’m curious on how you manage large code bases without some kind of static typing and other checks that typescript provides, like object properties, etc. Personally I find hard and scary to change things in js and being confident that it would work without breaking anything, with typescript I have that, some function rename, change parameter type, add/remove/rename object fields etc. I found a couple of times when migrating some files to typescript misspelled names that would be hard to catch and passed the code reviews, that’s and easy task for the computer but harder for the developers, also using tools that makes your code reviews easy its great.
elondaits 5y ago
I have used TS in the past and want to use it more in the future, so I'm probably counted in that 78%... but for the vast majority of projects I'm not using it. Based on most comments, questions, examples in lib code, etc. I'd say that the number of people using TS is waaaay less than 78%.

by llimos 5y ago

nightpool 5y ago

I've never used TypeScript. I've also never heard of this survey before, and I certainly didn't fill it out. I don't think these two facts are unrelated—according to their data, the vast plurality (48%, almost a majority) of the people who filled out that survey did so because they were on the mailing list for it. It's by no means a random or representative sample of the community. People who are more interested in surveys & new technology and are more likely to sign up to answer future surveys. Meanwhile, the StackOverflow 2020 survey, which reached twice as many JS developers (54k vs 23k), saw that only half of JS developers reported using TypeScript. (not counting any developers that reported using TS but not JS, which would drive the percentage further down). Again though—people who are more likely to fill out random surveys are going to be more plugged in to new technologies and more likely to adopt them. I've never used Typescript, and I don't plan to. I don't care about static typing. It's nice occasionally, but I don't find that the structural problems I need to solve day to day when working on large codebases are the sorts best solved by static typing. When working on hobby projects, I don't use JS compilers at all, the set of JS supported by modern browsers is already very expressive and iterating very quickly.

norman784 5y ago
I’m curious on how you manage large code bases without some kind of static typing and other checks that typescript provides, like object properties, etc. Personally I find hard and scary to change things in js and being confident that it would work without breaking anything, with typescript I have that, some function rename, change parameter type, add/remove/rename object fields etc. I found a couple of times when migrating some files to typescript misspelled names that would be hard to catch and passed the code reviews, that’s and easy task for the computer but harder for the developers, also using tools that makes your code reviews easy its great.

elondaits 5y ago

I have used TS in the past and want to use it more in the future, so I'm probably counted in that 78%... but for the vast majority of projects I'm not using it. Based on most comments, questions, examples in lib code, etc. I'd say that the number of people using TS is waaaay less than 78%.