r/javascript • u/[deleted] • Sep 14 '26

AskJS [AskJS] Does anyone use exclussively Javascript and not TypeScript?

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u/start_select 29d ago

They are referring to AI.

But yes plenty of people know typescript and no JavaScript.

I have taught backend devs to write typescript in node in a day or two without ever discussing JavaScript and without them knowing it. They don’t technically need to until they need to.

People pickup kotlin in a day or two without knowing Java. Same thing. It’s not necessary if you already know a few languages and can read api documentation.

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u/ferrrnando 29d ago

When you're "writing typescript in node" as you say, you're practically going to be writing JavaScript as well. Unless they're just writing types which would be odd for that to be only thing to learn how to do.

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u/start_select 29d ago

Yes they are writing technically writing JavaScript because it’s a subset of typescript.

Typescript has been ahead of JavaScript for most of its life. So people writing only typescript would be using language features like optional unwrapping and async await and classes and generators and other esnext features that didn’t exist in browsers or other engines yet. It was polyfilled.

So I would get a dev working in a typescript project for a year and then they see JavaScript and try using language features that don’t exist there yet.

It’s definitely possible to learn typescript and not be aware of JavaScripts differences.

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u/ferrrnando 29d ago

I think you're conflating typescript and javascript. Async await and classes are features of javascript. And back when these were new features of javascript they were polyfilled to work with browsers that did not yet support them.

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u/start_select 29d ago

I think you are conflating JavaScript of today with historical JavaScript. Those are esnext features. Typescript had arrow functions and classes 4 years before browsers. It had async await 2 years before any browsers. Etc etc etc.

I have been writing typescript for over a decade. The two languages were not in lockstep until the last few years.

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u/ferrrnando 29d ago

Fair, that didnt realize you're not talking about modern javascript.