TypeScript vs JavaScript: Understand the Differences
JavaScript was developed as a client-side scripting language by Brendan Eich at NetScape in 1995. It helped developers create highly interactive websites following client-side programming. Developers soon realized the potential of JavaScript to be useful as a server-side programming language. With the growth, it became complex and heavy and a strong need was felt to create a superset of JavaScript that could fulfill the requirements of a powerful server-side technology for enterprise level.
This led to the development of the TypeScript language. Angular based on TypeScript helps in developing dynamic web applications. Hiring an experienced angular development company is crucial to get enterprise-level web apps.
Here is the checklist of five main differences between TypeScript and JavaScript:
- Definition
TypeScript is the syntactical superset of JavaScript that can overcome the coding difficulty of large, complex projects. It includes all the JavaScript features along with few additional ones. It was created and maintained by Microsoft. The requirement for TypeScript can be mostly credited due to the drawbacks of JavaScript. Whereas JavaScript is the scripting language that assists in creating robust and engaging web page content. It was first built at Netscape and is now maintained by ECMA. Acceptance and validation of user inputs can only be possible through JavaScript.
- Ecosystem
TypeScript facilitates both static and dynamic typing of various kinds of idiomatic JavaScript traits like union, and intersection whereas JavaScript does not support type static typing. It renders an alternative to find and form code without any build setup. Static typing let developers check type correctness at compile time. TypeScript codes compile before execution whereas, on the other hand, JavaScript codes get interpreted during execution.
- Prototyping and Learning curve
TypeScript has a prototyping feature whereas JavaScript doesn’t have this feature. The former has a rigid learning curve and therefore it requires knowledge of scripting. But on the other side, JavaScript is simple and easy to learn and is a flexible language for writing web scripts. TypeScript has an interface but JavaScript does not have any.
- Annotation
To get the most out of TypeScript, programmers must constantly explain the code whereas no annotations are needed for JavaScript. TypeScript code is not intelligible by web browsers. That is the reason why codes written in TypeScript have to first translate into JavaScript. Browsers can read and display the JavaScript code.
- File Extensions, Companies, and Communities:
TypeScript has .tsx, and .ts file extensions whereas JavaScript uses .js file extension. JavaScript codes can be transformed to TypeScript by just changing the extension from .js to .ts. TypeScript has shorter developer community whereas JavaScript has a large community of software developers.
With all these differences, choosing angular development services based on TypeScript or AngularJS based on JavaScript depends on the development project requirements. When developers are working on small coding requirements, JavaScript is ideal while if you have an enterprise-level large web app and expert team of TypeScript developers you can go for it.
