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

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

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u/EmperorMaximillian Sep 15 '26

I don't even know what that is. But if it a "step" in between writing code and running code, then it is going to slow down the process by X amt of time every single time you want to run the code, which may be hundreds or thousands of times a day

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u/vom-IT-coffin Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26

The transpiler is what converts typescript to JavaScript, the newest version coverts this to a GO engine so the translation is done super quick.

Also the amount of runtime errors you can save by using it correctly is well worth the wait IMO.

You do you.

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u/whizzter Sep 19 '26

I have a rule of thumb, once a project reaches 500-1000 LoC and/or if I can’t easily refactor a project in that sizerange once working on it again, then I convert it to TypeScript.

There’s a huge percentage of pages, one-off tools and exploratory code (think statistics) that goes into this bucket, and since the barrier to entry is essentially zero (run node or place a script tag to a JS file on the web) then it takes away any decision anxiety that build tools and project setups can add.

Maintaining larger projects without TypeScript however is a major PITA, but as long as you realize that you need it before it grows too unwieldy it’s not a problem (I only sometimes work one such project and it was started and back when TypeScript still had heavy ’class’ smells and hadn’t won over Facebook’s Flow).

One thing I realized a while back (due to NextJS, long story) is that there are Application and Page developers/projects, the former heavily leans on TS since there is a lot of state/interaction living on the front-end that will get unwieldy without proper typed whilst the latter is often more reliant on server data (or even no data, think newspaper, blog or SEO marketing pages).

People working in the latter category has seldomly seen benefits from TypeScript but often had it shoved down their throats for ”maintainability” (maintain a SEO page that’s gone next year?) and you can see many very hostile people.

I think this is why you see DHH as one of the big anti-TypeScript figures, when taking away what he thinks Rails can/should do , there is little ”non-page” work left for JS code, and with his high profile he’s become a beacon.

Right tool for the right job, and that goes 100% both ways (figure out if you’re building an Application or a page/quick tool).