Discussion on: My confusions about TypeScript

[Ken Bellows]

Do you mean at the program layer? Is this really different than a class construct where as you pointed out the syntax doesn't require the function keyword?

I do mean at the program layer, yes. As far as whether it's really different than a class, I mean... yeah, it is. How would you restructure that program to use a class? Unless you want to go the Java route and use a Main class:

class Main {
  constructor() {
    const {sslInfo, outputFile} = this.processCmdLineArgs()

    const client = this.initClient(sslInfo)
    const rawMetrics = this.getRawMetrics(client)
    const metrics = this.processMetrics(rawMetrics)

    fs.writeFileSync(outputFile, JSON.stringify(metrics, null, 2))
  }

  processCmdLineArgs() {
    // ...
  }

  initClient(sslInfo) {
    // ...
  }

  getRawMetrics(client) {
    // ...
  }

  processMetrics(rawMetrics) {
    // ...
  }
}

// run Main
new Main()

If that's what you mean by using a class construct, then we just have very different preferences, because that's a nightmare to me.

But even if that's your personal preference, the point is that I still see plenty of code written this way by other developers, and it doesn't make sense unless you understand that function declarations are hoisted. My comment was mostly in response to when you said:

Lots of old school JavaScript interviewers will still ask you about "hoisting" which is non-existent by default with the Class. Why do anything but use the Class? If it's not an issue any longer, why do interviewers want to test your knowledge of "hoisting" even today?

My point is that hoisting is still a fundamental aspect of JavaScript and it's pretty important to understand, or at least be aware of, even if you have to look it up from time to time. Not understanding hoisting can lead to some subtle, hard-to-find bugs; I've been there a few times.

"ctrl+click my way into whichever part I need to read or mess with at the moment"

From the command line of an IDE? Or in browser console/debug mode?

Either, I suppose, though I was mostly thinking of an IDE context. My point is that anyone reading my code (including myself) can open the file and see the overview of the file, then quickly jump to the relevant function using standard IDE tools. And IIRC, ctrl+click works in browser dev tools' "Sources"/"Debug" tabs as well.

I hated AngularJs for the inability to get Service's to expose their properties and functions using Intellisense/Autocomplete. I think you are showing something that worked for AngularJs?

Totally agree, my biggest frustration with AngularJS is the total lack of intellisense. And no, unfortunately, this doesn't help with intellisense; in fact, it's more important in cases where intellisense doesn't work. The point is that when you see some code saying, dataService.getVendor(id), you can jump over to data-service.js, easily see the available methods, and ctrl+click stright to getVendor() without needing ctrl+f or other mechanisms. It's even more useful in a service that uses its own methods internally, since ctrl+f is less useful in that case.

How would you define Hoisting and when to use it over other constructs?

Hoisting is a step in the interpretation of a JavScript scope wherein all declarations are basically plucked out of their place in the script and moved to the top of the scope. It's not really something you use or don't use, it's just the way JavaScript works.

It's important to note, however, that declarations are hoisted, but initializations are not. So for example, in this code:

(function do() {
  console.log(x)
  var x = 10
})()
// Output:
// => undefined

You'll get undefined as your output. However, function declarations are special because they don't have separate declaration and initialization steps, it's all-in-one, so they get hoisted completely to the top:

(function do() {
  console.log(x)
  function x() { console.log('hey!') }
})()
// Output:
// => function x() { console.log('hey!') }

And const and let are a bit weirder. They do get hoisted, but there's this weird thing called the Temporal Dead Zone where they're defined but not initialized and you'll still get errors if you try to reference them... so a lot of people say they "aren't hoisted", which is technically not true, but it might as well be.

Hopefully that all made sense... it's a weird bit of rather esoteric JavaScript knowledge that you can basically look up when you need it.

[John Peters]

Ken thank you for spending so much time on this. Definitely something for me to study.