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Discussion on: Is TypeScript Really... A Language??

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Adam Nathaniel Davis

Good points. The more I think about it, there's no shortage of "Superset Of-" languages. That is, after all, part of the evolution of programming.

And I suppose I am more-than-a-little hung up on what TS seems to be bringing to the table. It's typing - and... that's about it. And, AFAIK, there's no way to just run TS. By itself. For the time being, at least, it actually requires you to have a JS runtime for it to work. That feels to me like... a package.

I'm realizing that one of my personal definitions for a standalone language is that it can run... standalone. Or at least, it should be "standalone" to the casual observer. I understand that one language may be completely dependent upon another - but if I have to manually supply the runtime for the 1st language, then it doesn't feel to me like the 2nd language is really much of a "language" at all.