I was talking to my manager the other day, discussing the languages we are using at $dayjob. He kind of offhandedly said that he thinks TypeScript is a temporary fad and soon everything will go back to using JavaScript. He doesn’t like that it’s made by Microsoft either.

I’m not a frontend developer so I don’t really know, but my general impression is that everything is moving more and more towards TypeScript, not away from it. But maybe I’m wrong?

Does anyone who actually works with TypeScript have any impression about this?

  • Hemingways_ShotgunEnglish
    105·
    9 months ago

    TypeScript is the new DOC format.

    Create a language/format. Spend all of your effort making it ubiquitous until it becomes the default “standard” in the workplace. Then charge a metric fuck-tonne for the “official” software that makes use of it.

    It’s how Office became their cash cow. They create the proprietary doc format, get everyone using it, and once it’s embedded in the workplace, charge exorbitantly for the software that uses it.

    Once they get everyone using TS as a new industry standard, they’ll find a way to make people have to pay for it. Mark my words.

    • FooBarrington@lemmy.world
      102·
      9 months ago

      I honestly think this is fearmongering. Yes, Microsoft is a shitty company that has done shitty things, but:

      • the Typescript repo is licensed with Apache 2.0, which means the community can always fork it if they do bad/evil stuff
      • there are competing type checkers in the works, which would fully remove any Microsoft influence from a developer using Typescript
      • there already are competing compilers which are broadly used

      The only real option they have to do what you’re describing is to implement new features that could be used for monetizing it - there would be some inertia regarding community forks. But even then I can’t come up with any monetization model that could make sense. Do you have a specific example in mind?

      • Hemingways_ShotgunEnglish
        24·
        9 months ago

        I hope you’re right. But my trust level for corporations is somewhere between 0 and 0.1