Discussion on: The TypeScript Experience

[Rense Bakker]

Yes I've used PHP and thought it was awesome, then I discovered that there are languages out there with less runtime errors. Btw typescript is not really a strictly typed language like Java where you are obligated to define EVERYTHING, even your function return types, which becomes a massive PITA. Typescript uses type inference, which offers the same typesafety, but less headache:

  function notComparableToJava(returnType: 'string' | 'int') {
    if (returnType === 'string') {
      return "Hello World!"
    } else if (returnType === 'int') {
      return 42
    }
    // no else clause, return type can be undefined
  }

(local function) notComparableToJava(returnType: 'string' | 'int'): "Hello World!" | 42 | undefined