Should I use typescript? or I can just use ES6?

angularjs typescript ecmascript-6
cjskywalker picture cjskywalker · Jun 12, 2015 · Viewed 118.2k times · Source

My daily job is client developer using AngularJS. We are evaluating if we want to go with TypeScript. I did some research on typescript and almost every JavaScript package I need must have definition type files. I found that is not very convenient, especially if I would like to try something new and they don't have the definition for it. Its really frustrating. (Even the current jQuery definition gives me some problems if I want to use typescript 1.5 beta). I started looking at ES6 and it looks similar to TypeScript. Should I just use ES6 instead? Also, I heard angular 2 will have full support for TypeScript, will that be one reason I should stay with it?

Answer

Brocco picture Brocco · Jun 12, 2015

Decision tree between ES5, ES6 and TypeScript

Do you mind having a build step?

  • Yes - Use ES5
  • No - keep going

Do you want to use types?

  • Yes - Use TypeScript
  • No - Use ES6

More Details

ES5 is the JavaScript you know and use in the browser today it is what it is and does not require a build step to transform it into something that will run in today's browsers

ES6 (also called ES2015) is the next iteration of JavaScript, but it does not run in today's browsers. There are quite a few transpilers that will export ES5 for running in browsers. It is still a dynamic (read: untyped) language.

TypeScript provides an optional typing system while pulling in features from future versions of JavaScript (ES6 and ES7).

Note: a lot of the transpilers out there (i.e. babel, TypeScript) will allow you to use features from future versions of JavaScript today and exporting code that will still run in today's browsers.

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