TypeScript Turns 10! Can it Outperform Python from Here?

TypeScript Turns 10 and today TypeScript is a thriving language used by millions of developers

It's been 10 years since Microsoft unveiled TypeScript, a programming language that would develop alongside JavaScript but offer new ways for developers to manage large and chaotic applications. Today TypeScript is a thriving language that's used by millions of developers around the world. In surveys and language rankings like StackOverflow's Annual Survey, GitHub's Octoverse Report, and Redmonk's Language Rankings, TypeScript has consistently stood in the top 10 (if not 5) most-used and most-loved languages. With a new year starting for the language can Microsoft's TypeScript outperform Python?

Of course, the context is essential – TypeScript's use is fundamentally intertwined with JavaScript's, and every TypeScript developer is also a JavaScript developer. Thankfully, even when asking JavaScript developers if they use TypeScript and like it – like in the State of JS Survey – the answer is a resounding "yes".

Microsoft anticipated that developers would want assistance in writing JavaScript because of its widespread use. According to Microsoft's senior program manager for TypeScript, Daniel Rosenwasser "the team had an idea of what TypeScript might be, and if you go back to our first announcement article, the value proposition is the same as it is now!"

Rosenwasser stated that TypeScript has to be open source, compatible with existing JavaScript, and accessible to meet the new venture's needs. There also needed to be a familiarity with JavaScript. One of the main aims of the design is to:

• The generated code has no performance penalty while being executed.
• Consistency with the latest and upcoming ECMAScript standards.
• Maintaining JavaScript's original functionality throughout execution.
• Not including expression-level syntax.

The developers of TypeScript decided to keep the language's syntax and actions at runtime as simple as possible to keep the focus squarely on the type system. TypeScript is increasingly popular and is used by millions of developers today. There have been several surveys and rankings of languages, and Pypl, an index measuring the popularity of programming languages, has consistently placed well.

Many well-known programs, like the Angular web framework and the Deno runtime, use TypeScript. TypeScript 4.8 is the latest available release. The beta version of TypeScript 4.9 has been released.

The Early Days

When TypeScript first debuted, there was a lot of skepticism – and understandably so. To some JavaScript users, a team trying to bring static types to JavaScript might have sounded like an evil plot or a joke.

But the features had merit. Type-checking, catching bugs before you even save your file, and getting rich editor features like code completion, navigation, and refactorings. Rosenwasser says in his blog post "We knew teams inside and outside of our company were having huge challenges with complex JavaScript codebases, and we knew that JavaScript was going to be used everywhere. So who wouldn't want powerful tools to help write it? For the team, there was a vision for what TypeScript could be, and, if you look back at our first announcement post, the value proposition was largely the same as it is today!"

Early on, Microsoft built a small but hard-working and enthusiastic community, willing to experiment and ride out the experience while they were still iterating, learning, and building something that hadn't yet even hit 1.0. They saw exciting new efforts like the DefinitelyTyped project, new community members helping out on StackOverflow and their issue tracker, authors writing books and tutorials for the language, and new libraries taking a bet on TypeScript. These patient, hard-working, and energetic developers laid the foundation for the TypeScript community to grow.

As per the blog post by Rosenwasser -"Most JavaScript developers were uncertain of TypeScript. So how was this team going to convince JavaScript developers of the value of static types in a dynamically typed language? "Types versus no types" has been a contentious topic, and that goes back at least half a century in the programming world".