How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love TypeScript

The story of my journey from TypeScript skeptic to TypeScript fanboy

Transcript

1. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love TypeScript Tommy O’Keefe (@tommyokeefe) | RVA JS | November 15, 2019
2. Senior full-stack developer At NPR since November 2016 Part of the Voice Platforms team since it was formed in September of 2017 Who am I?
3. Why TypeScript?
4. Why Typescript? 46.6% - Have used would use again 5.4% - Have used wouldn’t use again 33.7% - Heard of it, want to learn 13.7% - Heard of it, not interested
5. Why Typescript?
6. Why Me?
7. “Most Qualified”
8. “Most Experienced”
9. “Most Knowledgeable”
12. “ What made you a skeptic?
13. My Background
14. My Experience
15. My Own Biases
16. “ What made you a fan?
17. Confusion → Clarity
18. While Reading Code Confusion → Clarity
19. While Reading Code While Writing Code Confusion → Clarity
20. While Reading Code While Writing Code While Running Code Confusion → Clarity
21. From Skeptic to Fanboy A Journey in Two Parts
22. Adding TypeScript to an Existing Project 1. Angular Upgrade
23. Things That Got Me Like:
24. Increased Readability & Self Documenting Code
25. “ Hold up Tommy, can’t TypeScript files be like 30% longer than a JavaScript file?
26. Better IDE Support & Integration
27. “ Wait just a minute Tommy, my IDE already does all kinds of great stuff, why should I add TypeScript?
28. Simple, but so Helpful
29. Key Takeaways
30. Keep Things Loose At First Keep your config file as permissive as possible: settings like AllowJS are key!
31. Keep Things Loose At First Keep your config file as permissive as possible: settings like AllowJS are key! Focus on adding type annotations that improve readability and expose problem areas in your app
32. Tighten Things Up Progressively add more meaningful type definitions as you work through your files.
33. Tighten Things Up Progressively add more meaningful type definitions as you work through your files. Tighten up the config and linting rules once your first pass is finished.
34. Using TypeScript for a New Project 2. Alexa, Do You Like TypeScript?
35. Things That Got Me Like:
36. Catching Type Errors at Compilation or Earlier
37. “ Tommy… Why can’t we just perform these checks at runtime?
38. Errors Are Friends, Not Enemies
39. Errors Are Friends, Not Enemies
40. Errors Are Friends, Not Enemies
41. Key Takeaways
42. Errors Are Your Friends No matter what kind of error you encounter, it’s revealing an inconsistency in your code. It’s an ally, not an enemy.
43. Type Any is not Your Friend Get rid of it wherever you can.
44. Don’t Forget Your Config! Many quick start guides jump right into running tsc from the command line. No matter how small your project is, you need a config!
45. Use Existing Tools Starting a React app? Angular? Vue? Someone else has undoubtedly already put together a great starter repo you can use!
46. Helpful Resources Quick Start Samples Migrating JS to TS TypeScript Handbook (very useful) TypeScript Deep Dive (Basarat Ali Sayed)
48. Thank you! tokeefe@npr.org @tommyokeefe https://npr.codes https://n.pr/tech-jobs https://bit.ly/typescriptfanboy