Why do I hate Typescript so much? It's syntax despite compiling into another language is hacky and often obtuse. It provides multiple escape hatches that defeat the main point of the language. And primarily when pitched to me the whole "it's JavaScript with Types" and "It's opt-in" are the big selling points. It feels like how Christianity gained followers by just adopting what the locals were doing. There are other languages that compile to JavaScript that have their own simpler syntaxes that more closely follow existing typed languages. So why hasn't Elm caught on like Typescript? Microsoft. As developers we've become dependent on VSCode that is conveniently well integrated with this language by Microsoft who are also the maintainers of this language. Aside from the warts I mentioned above and the compilation difficulties and foot guns, the actual benefit of the language really feels like yagni and the hard sell really reinforces that feeling.
Why do I hate Typescript so much? It's syntax despite compiling into another language is hacky and often obtuse. It provides multiple escape hatches that defeat the main point of the language. And primarily when pitched to me the whole "it's JavaScript with Types" and "It's opt-in" are the big selling points. It feels like how Christianity gained followers by just adopting what the locals were doing. There are other languages that compile to JavaScript that have their own simpler syntaxes that more closely follow existing typed languages. So why hasn't Elm caught on like Typescript? Microsoft. As developers we've become dependent on VSCode that is conveniently well integrated with this language by Microsoft who are also the maintainers of this language. Aside from the warts I mentioned above and the compilation difficulties and foot guns, the actual benefit of the language really feels like yagni and the hard sell really reinforces that feeling.