JavaScript Vs TypeScript : Which One Is Better For You ?
By – HtmlCssMonk
Hey wanderer, Are you in a dilemma of which scripting language, TypeScript or JavaScript, to go with? Well, this is just the right place for you. This article on JavaScript vs TypeScript will give you a complete understanding of both TypeScript and JavaScript programming language, to help you make your decision.
What is ?
JavaScript
JavaScript is a scripting language which helps you create interactive web pages. It followed rules of client-side programming, so it runs in the user’s web browser without the need of any resources forms the web server. You can also use Javascript with other technologies like REST APIs, XML, and more.
The idea behind developing this script is to make it a complementary scripting language like Visual Basic was to C++ in Microsoft’s language families. However, JavaScript is not designed for large complex applications. It was developed for applications with a few hundred lines of code !
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TypeScript
Typescript is a modern age Javascript development language. It is a statically compiled language to write clear and simple Javascript code. It can be run on Node js or any browser which supports ECMAScript 3 or newer versions.
Typescript provides optional static typing, classes, and interface. For a large JavaScript project adopting Typescript can bring you more robust software and easily deployable with a regular JavaScript application.
Features
JavaScript
- Open source project with Microsoft’s patronage
- Flexible, dynamic and cross-platform
- Used for both client-side and server-side
- Lightweight interpreted
- Supported by all browsers
- Weakly typed
- JIT compilation
- Specially designed tool for small scripts
- Supports classes, interfaces & modules
- Allows cross-compilation
TypeScript
- Easy to maintain and enhances project productivity
- Static typing and annotations are possible
- Supports object-oriented features like interface, inheritance, and classes
- Easy to debug and early detection of errors
- Supports ES6 (ECMAScript) that offers easier syntax to handle objects and inheritance features
- The good full-fledged IDE support
- It supports JS libraries & API Documentation
- Better code structuring and object-oriented programming techniques
History
JavaScript
Let see an important landmark in the history of Javascript:
- It was launched in September 1995, and It took just ten days to develop this e scripting language which was initially called Mocha
- In November 1996, Netscape submitted JavaScript to ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association) International
- ECMAScript 2 was released in 1998
- ECMAScript 3 was released in 1999
- In 2005, Eich and Mozilla join ECMA to develop E4X Java script
- In January 2009, the CommonJS project was launched with the aim of defining a common standard library
- June 2011, ECMAScript 5.1 was released
- In June 2015. ECMAScript 2016 was released
- The current version is ECMAScript 2017 which was released in June 2017
TypeScript
Let see important landmarks from the History of Typescript:
- The typescript was first made public in the year 2012
- After two years of internal development at Microsoft. TypeScript 0.9, released in 2013
- Additional support for generics TypeScript 1.0 was released at Build 2014
- In July 2014, a new TypeScript compiler came which is five times faster then it’s previous version
- July 2015, support for ES6 modules, namespace keyword, for, of support, decorators
- In November 2016, an added feature like key and lookup types mapped types, and rest
- On March 27, 2018, conditional types, the improved key with intersection types supports added in the Typescript.
How to use
JavaScript
There are two ways to use JavaScript in an HTML file.
- Embed all the JavaScript code into the HTML code.
- Create a separate JavaScript file that can be called from within a Script element (enclosed by Script tags).
TypeScript
TypeScript codes are written in files followed with the .ts extension. A TypeScript compiler needs to be installed on your platform which then compiles the TypeScript code to plain JavaScript file using the command “tsc .ts” . A TypeScript file can be written in any code editor and once it gets converted to plain JavaScript file, it can be included in the HTML and can be run on any browser.
JavaScript vs TypeScript
| JavaScript | TypeScript | |
| Language | Scripting language | Object-oriented programming language |
| Learning Curve | Flexible and easy to learn | a programmer should have prior scripting knowledge |
| Type | Lightweight, interpreted programming language | Strongly type object-oriented programming language |
| Client/Server side | Both client and server-side | Specially used in client-side |
| File Extension | .js | . ts or .tsx |
| Time | Faster | Takes time to compile the code |
| Data Binding | No concept of types and interfaces available | Concepts like types and interfaces used to describe the data being used. |
| Annotations | Annotations not required | Code must be annotated constantly to get the most out of TypeScript Features. |
| Syntax | All the statements are written within the Script tag. The browser program starts interpreting all the text between these tags as a script<script>// javascript code</script> | A TypeScript program is composed of: Modules Functions Variables Statements Expressions Comments |
| Static Typing | There is no concept of Static typing in JavaScript | Supports static typing. |
| Support for Modules | Does not support modules | Gives support for modules |
| Interface | Does not have an interface | Has an interface |
| Optional parameter function | Does not support | Supports |
| Prototyping Feature | Does not have any such feature | Has a feature of prototyping |
| Community of developers | As JavaScript occupies the major chunk of codes, it is widely accepted and used by the programming community | TypeScript is new and has a relatively smaller community base. |
| Preference to choose | JavaScript is preferable to use in small coding projects. | TypeScript is an object-oriented language which makes the code more consistent, clean, simple and reusable. So it is better to use TypeScript for large projects. |
| Famous Company using the Technology | Asana, Clever, Screen award | Airbnb, Codecademy, Instagram |
| Salary | The average salary for “Typescript developer” ranges from approximately $148,027 per year in United States | The average salary for a JavaScript Developer is $110,777 per year in the United States. |
Does being a superset of JavaScript makes TypeScript suitable for all types of projects?
No.
TypeScript is no way to replace or make JavaScript obsolete. JavaScript is still the most favorite client-side scripting language. For smaller projects, using TypeScript could be an overhead because it takes time to trans compile the code into JavaScript, which is an extra step.
JavaScript is directly run on the browser, so for small code chunks, it’s easier to refresh and debug the code. In the case of TypeScript, we need a proper IDE and set up to run the code.
When should we use TypeScript ?
When the code becomes huge, complex to handle, and more prone to errors, it is better if some errors are caught during compile time itself. That is where TypeScript helps.
Which is Better ?
As discussed in the article, TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript which means that TypeScript is JavaScript with additional features.
We can say that if an experienced developer is working on relatively small coding projects, then JavaScript is ideal. However, if you have knowledge and expertise development team, then Typescript is a most preferred option.
But TypeScript can never replace JavaScript as TypeScript at its core is JavaScript.
However, it may replace the way people write code for web applications.
Thanks for reading.
Namaste !
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