TypeScript is Winning

What is JavaScript

JavaScript was originally designed for small browser scripts, not complex applications. It is a simple language made for a simple time and made to be accessible to all. The language is extremely tollerable and doesn’t complain if variables are used as string or numbers (or even objects).

As web apps grew more ambitious, developers hit pain points: no static typing meant bugs often surfaced only at runtime, refactoring was risky without tooling support, and codebases became difficult to navigate and maintain at scale.

What is TypeScript

On the other hand, TypeScript was created as an alternative to JavaScript to solve a bunch of issues in attempt to create production ready code at scale.

Created by Anders Hejlsberg at Microsoft around 2012, TypeScript is JavaScript but with type safety. Just like compiled languages like C/C++, if variables are defined as a particular type, it cannot be used as a different type later. This allows for optimizations in the JavaScript interperator but more importantly, it checks for errors at build time.

Make the Switch

If you haven’t done so, make the switch to TypeScript. I am extremely stubborn and fought the TypeScript popularity wave for a long time. I was building large scale React apps for a long time and I was doing fine.

But with larger teams and the future of vibe coding tools, the JavaScript vs TypeScript decision is now no longer even a question. Learn TypeScript now and safe yourself some early headaches.