Something New But Not Really

My Experiences

So far, TypeScript is a lot similar to Javascript, except that it tries to be different. In a way, it feels a little more complicated. Having starting college in 2021 and my first language being Java, it did feel like a lot compared to when I learned C and C++ a bit later, but I feel like Java is only a good first language when learning and understanding code fundamentally. However, I haven’t touched Java for a couple years, and having to go back to it was okay. However, trying to learn TypeScript felt like a challenege because I wanted to write the code in Java, but its supposed to be TypeScript. I haven’t formally learned Javascript in a class before, so trying out the exercises felt a bit strange because of how similar it felt to code in Java vs JavaScript.

How I remember printing something out in Java:

system.out.println("Hello World");

But printing something in Javascript:

console.log("Hello, World!");

So it felt a bit strange having to go over Javascript for the first time, mind you I haven’t touched Java since 2021.

In a way, you can look at Javascript and TypeScript the same way as you look at C and C++. They’re both familiar in a way, but different in some. For example:

Javascript

function add(a, b) {
  return a + b;
}
console.log(add(5, 3)); // 8
console.log(add("5", 3)); // "53" ← no error, but might be unintended

TypeScript

function add(a: number, b: number): number {
  return a + b;
}

console.log(add(5, 3)); // 8
// console.log(add("5", 3)); // ❌ Error: Argument of type 'string' is not assignable to parameter of type 'number'

Personally, I do see TypeScript being good in a Software Engineering perspective. I can see it being a good use for developing thing formally. TypeScript could be good in athletic software engineering, assuming by the name, it might be a bit challeneging but I can see if people would want to use the language in an athletic sort of way.

I did find the practice WOD’s to be very useful, mainly because I’m a slow coder usually and having the practice helps a lot, practice in general just helps a bunch. I do like this style of learning, it lets me go at my own pace, it can be stressful if and only if I don’t understand something right away.

ChatGPT

I asked ChapGPT to give me the Javascript and TypeScript code snippets as my examples.