Before the dev.to codebase was opensourced, I was working on it in the private repository and created an issue in there, Consider using Flow or TypeScript in the Front-End Codebase, that has since been copied to the public repository (thanks @maestromac!).
For those new to types, here's a post from Preethi Kasireddy about types, Why use static types in JavaScript? (Part 1)
Also, here's a fairly recent episode from the Script and Style podcast about types in JavaScript, Static Typing for JavaScript.
TypeScript
I'm partial to TypeScript myself. I've written about it here before.
There appears to be a shift towards TypeScript for those that are interested in types. I wrote about it earlier this year, Is 2019 the year of TypeScript?
There is also a great episode on the React Podcast that talks about TypeScript with Jared Palmer.
I love chatting with @jaredpalmer about hyped technologies.
— chantastic 🥰 @ReactRally (@chantastic) March 28, 2019
He's pragmatic, considered, and methodical when exploring new tech.
If you want to successfully explore @typescriptlang in your React apps, this is a great place to start. https://t.co/6EFANvmrM8
Also check out the TypeScript tag on dev.to
Flow
Flow is another main option in the frontend in regards to types, although I've never used it myself.
Here are some links if you want to read up on Flow.
- Writing Better JavaScript with Flow
- An Introduction to Flow
- Flow: A Static Type Checker for JavaScript
- I honestly did not really find many posts on dev.to about Flow, but feel free to check out flow tag and flowtype tag.
Take Flow for a spin in the Flow REPL
Other Options
I've narrowed it down to TypeScript and Flow as they are the most popular, but feel free to bring others to the table to discuss, e.g. Elm, Reason.
Nice. I think It would also be interesting to mention how Elm and possibly Reason compare to TS as well. I've been looking at Elm these days and I feel resources are much lighter.
— Thomas Lefebvre (@thomlbvr) April 8, 2019
Vanilla JS🍦
If you really don't want to see the codebase converted to use types, that's OK too.
Are static types something that would interest people in the dev.to community who are contributing to or are thinking about contributing to the frontend codebase? Feel free to discuss in the comments on dev.to and/or jump on over to the GitHub issue and comment there.
