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Table of Contents
Ever heard about Typescript or perhaps anything about it? Typescript can be defined as a Microsoft programming language that is developed, maintained, and updated by the Microsoft Company. In other words, one can call it a superset of JavaScript.
This way, an assumption is made that you know what a superset or JavaScript is! Maybe just to remind you about what they are:
What is a superset, according to you? Here’s everything that you need to know!
A superset is basically when you get to perform a single set of a task and immediately switch on to another and perform another set of task. Remember Typescript is designed for developers working on a large-scale application and is used to perform large-scale tasks.
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Let’s now have a look at the History of Typescript.
The creation of Typescript is traced back to the year 2012, when it was first made public. Two years later, another version (0.9) was publicized. This was done after several years of internal development of the initial version. This made it more acceptable in society hence adopted by many.
In July 2014, another Typescript compiler was launched. It was rated five times faster than its previous version. This was a significant success within the Microsoft Company.
In July 2015, developers came up with many features, including; E56 module support, namespace keywords, and decorators. Later on, in 2016 November, features such as key and lookups were brought in.
In March 2018, developers came up with the last version. They brought in features like; conditional types improved key which came with intersection types.
Now that we are on the same page, it would be better if you know what JavaScript is!
As you may know, JavaScript is a scripting language used by Netscape web browser navigators. Its advantage is that developers can extend it in case of coding large apps. In general, JavaScript is a designed tool for tiny scripts.
JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich, who was a Netscape Corporation programmer. It was launched in 1995, and within 10 days, it was already a developed scripting language.


Is Typescript a compiled language?
You must have been wondering whether Typescript is a compiled language or not, isn’t that so? What do you think as a developer, contributor, student or even whoever that you might be?
Earlier on, we did find Typescript as a superset of JavaScript; this is to say that, it expands JavaScript by adding more features.
Typescript codes are trans- compiled into JavaScript. This does not render useless the JavaScript code. They are as well valid Typescript programs since Typescript expands to JavaScript.
There are tools used to convert Typescript into JavaScript. One of them is Typescript to JavaScript compiler.
Typescript type and point out the distinguishing factors between Typescript and JavaScript.
Let’s major on the key point. Remember, a Typescript is an object-oriented, typed, and a compiled language to JavaScript. It was designed by Microsoft C# designer Anders Hejlsberg. From his point of view, he discovered Typescript as a language and a set of a tool as well.
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Typescript being a JavaScript compiled language, what are these features it adds to JavaScript. To begin with, Typescript issues a high-level development tool for JavaScript. In addition to that, it issues static checking in the JavaScript project. With Typescript at hand, developers have made a great improvement to the JavaScript language. The Typescript codes are compiled according to the ES5 and ES6 qualities to issue the necessary assistance to the recent browser.
Remember, Typescript Issues support JavaScript libraries and also provide API documentation. Typescript provides great code structuring plus an object-based programming style. It is worth noting that Typescript can expand the language in JavaScript above the decorator’s standards.
What does Typescript add to JavaScript?
Now, what can be your answer when asked what Typescript adds to JavaScript? Perhaps you might give it a fantastic guess or completely get confused on how to answer it correctly, isn’t that so?
Despite your most likely outcome, here is what you should have in mind.
Typescript is a superset of JavaScript; this is to say, Typescript is extended to JavaScript. It condenses JavaScript code, making it reader-friendly and reduces debug.
Debug is a process of getting rid of errors from the computer hardware or software at large.
As you may be aware, Typescript issues high-level productive tools for the JavaScript Ides. In addition to this, it also provides practices like static checking.
Another key feature that Typescript adds to JavaScript is that it makes the JavaScript codes more reader-friendly. This enhances an easy understanding of the codes. With Typescript at hand, developers can make a big improvement over the JavaScript language.
Again, Typescript prevents JavaScript developers from experiencing painful bugs that developers do go through when writing JavaScript. It does this by type-checking the code.
The key features that Typescript adds to JavaScript are mentioned below:
- Ability to function with voluntary parameters
- Ability to function with REST parameters
- Ability to provide Generic support
- Capacity to support modules.
In addition to the above-mentioned features, Typescript can as well do error checking. It does this by compiling the codes together. In case any error occurs, it will highlight the errors before going through the script.
Lastly, Typescript supports all the modern JavaScript features with ECMAScript of 2015 in it.
Typescript vs. JavaScript
There are several Differences between Typescript and JavaScript. In this case, we shall major our focus on the key differences, after which you shall know of the general features.
In terms of definition, Typescript is a superset of JavaScript, whereas JavaScript is a scripting language that assists developers in coming up with interactive websites. Another key feature is that code in Typescript must be compiled to function properly. This is contrary to JavaScript since its codes can function best without being compiled.
In comparison, Typescript has a prototyping feature contrary to JavaScript that lacks this feature. JavaScript is a single option for small-scale projects. This puts Typescript ahead since it includes all the JavaScript features and is mostly used by developers for large-size files. JavaScript lacks features like interfaces and types, which are majorly used by Typescript to describe the type of data in use.
Remember, the two languages have different features, and this is what constitutes these differences.
To begin with, let us dive into the Typescript features:
- It is easy to maintain.
- It provides high-level productivity to developers.
- It prevents developers from experiencing bugs.
- Provides easy code navigation
- It is user friendly
- It Issues support to ES6
- Provides a way of recovering the codes
- It has many more additional functions in it
- It issues support to classes, subclasses together with interfaces and subinterfaces
- It has a scalable private interface.
Let’s now find out the features of JavaScript. They include:
- It is absolutely easy to learn and understand
- It is a Dynamic Language. This is to say that it’s much flexible.
- It is free from framework support.
- It has an adorable workflow test.
Between JS and Ts, which one did you find better?
Both seem to be better. The choice of what to go for will depend on the type of project the developer is undertaking. In case you are working on a large-scale project, then Typescripts is better but if you have a small-scale project, then go for JavaScript.
What is Typescript used for?
Typescript has more than a handful of functions. Let’s begin with the key functionality. Let’s go!
The most significant function of Typescript is to catch up with the mistakes earlier enough through a type system and to give JavaScript developers an easy time. It does this by preventing developers from painful bugs.
Typescript can as well perform practices such as static checking. Keep in mind that Typescript enhances the easy reading of the codes and understanding to developers. JavaScript development is entirely based on the Typescript; hence with Typescript, we are in a position of coming up with bigger and better improvement over JavaScript.
As you may know, Typescript may be used to curtail the painful bugs that JavaScript developers go through when writing JavaScript.
Our main focus is on the uses of Typescript and anything else that goes around that. It’s better if you know that Typescript codes are compiled to issue support to the browser. In addition, Typescript aligns itself with ECMAScript. This alignment enhances great compatibility during the development sequence.
Consequently, Typescript is used to carefully bring into account all the language features and their functions. It is improving the outcome of the tool in a productive manner. Typescript assists us in re-using the developers’ knowledge by giving similar experiences to developers. This results in a huge improvement over JavaScript.
Typescript has helped many people understand most of their codes. This is so because; they get in a position to easily transverse the codes better and understand their relationship. It simplifies the codes in JavaScript by making them reader-friendly. This brings in another feature of Typescript as being open source.
Typescript to JavaScript converter
Have you ever thought of this? Is it possible to convert Typescript to JavaScript?
Don’t bother yourself anymore. Let’s find out.
Typescript code is converted to JavaScript. This is to say that, Typescript expands on JavaScript. To enhance this, an online Typescript converter tool is used. This tool is used to compile Typescript to JavaScript. The tool is of great use in making online tests which will lead to discovering Typescript and the differences that exist between JavaScript and Typescript.
Before you can see how to convert Typescript to JavaScript, ask yourself why we need to do that. Is it because most modern browsers are just capable of processing JavaScript only? That is so; hence you need to convert your Typescript code before you run it in the browser.
The process of compiling Typescript to JavaScript can as well produce source maps. The source maps will set correspondence in between the Typescript code and the JavaScript code executed.
To convert Typescript into JavaScript, There is a procedure that will make your process a great success.
First, install the Typescript compiler. This will help you convert the Typescript code into JavaScript. Note that you can do this within your workspace or globally. The simplest way of installing Typescript is via the Node.js Package Manager (npm). The npm will help you install Typescript globally within your computer. To check if your installation process is successful, you can check the version.
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Second, to that, you can as well use the VS code. The VS Code will integrate with Typescript through the task runner. We can adopt this in converting Typescript files into JavaScript.
However, it’s important to note that VS Codes as a Typescript language is different from your installed Typescript compiler.
Another importance of adopting the VS Code tasks is its ability to display warnings and integrated errors on the problem panel.
Let’s go through converting a simple Typescript into JavaScript.
It’s based on the following steps:
- Come up with a simple Typescript file
You can do this by opening the VS code in an empty folder.
- Run the Typescript built
- Default the Typescript built
- Go through the build issue
Typescript versions
What do you understand by the term Typescript version? Do you have any idea of what it may be? Perhaps you are right; let’s have a look at Typescript versions that are the types of Typescript development with an improvement under each stage.
They include the following.
- Version 0.8
This was the first version of the Typescript to be released to the public. It was released on the first day of October in the year 2012. Significantly, it had no improvement since it was the first version.
- Version 0.9
It was released a year later after the first version. It is worth noting that it had no significant improvement in it.
- Version 1.1
It was released to the public on 6th October 2014. This was a year later, after the second version. It came with a great performance experience compared to the 1st and 2nd versions. Hence it was loved by the majority was subsequently adopted.
- Version 1.3
It was released on 12th November 2014.
It provided additional features to the previous version, 1.1. One of the significant features was its ability to protect the modifier and all the Tuple types.
- Version 1.4
According to all the improvements done since 2012 when the first version was launched, this version is considered to have more than a handful of improvements. It was launched on 20th 01, 2015, with the following improvements.
- Additional union types
- Ability to perform let & const declaration
- The template strings
- Type guard and type alliances.
- Version 1.5
It was launched on the 20th of July 2015. It came with improvement such as;
- Improved decorators support
- ES6 modules
- Namespace keyword
- Version 1.6
It was launched on 16th September 2015.
It came with improvements such as;
- Support for JSX
- Methodologies and classes abstracts
- User-friendliness
- Intersection types and declarations
- Version 1.7
It was launched on 30th November 2015.
Its improvements included:
- The ability to sync and provide support.
- Version 1.8
This was launched on 22nd February of 2016. Its additional features include
- Provided error-based control flow analysis
- The string Literal types
- Version 2.0
It was launched on 22nd September 2016.
Its improvements include:
- Issued control flow analysis
- Isolated union types
- Had random keyword
- Never type
- Version 2.1
It was launched on 8th November 2016.
Its improvements included the ability to provide lookup types and object spread.
Different Typescript versions have emerged since2012, when the 1st version was launched. So far, the latest version is version 3.5 that was launched on 29th May 2019.
Typescript playground
Have you ever thought of what Typescript playground is or what it is used for? Here’s all that you need to know. Typescript playground is an online editing tool, which is used for exhausting Typescript and JavaScript.
Are you aware of the new Typescript playground? The new Typescript playground has greatly extended features. The new playground is comparable with options such as;p
- Target option, which allows users to change from es5 to esnext.
- It issues assistance to plain JavaScript files.
- It contains all the strictness flags.
The above-mentioned options work best when passing links to the playground samples. This gives users a great share experience.
Learn Typescript
Are you interested in learning Typescript? If yes, then this section of this article will be of great significance to you.
To begin with, you should know some of the basic things you’ll need to learn during this course; they include;
- How to use Typescript and its features as well. What are these features? They are non-other than:
- ES6 support
- Classes
- Types
- Modules
- Interfaces etc.,
- Get to know what Typescript is and how it works.
- The relationship between Typescript and JavaScript and what does Typescript adds to JavaScript.
- Learn how to combine Typescript into real JavaScript successfully.
- Learn the Typescript compiler and the level of configuration it offers
- Learn Typescript both in theory and practice
Typescript tutorial
Are you interested in learning about Typescript? Before you commence your study, you need to remind yourself of things such as; Typescript is a programming language that is a superset of JavaScript.
Another thing that you must remind yourself is that Typescript is developed, updated, and maintained by Microsoft. It is worth noting that, Typescript is not directly run over the browser. It requires a compiler to compile and come up with it in a JavaScript file.
This tutorial contains all the necessary topics which are important in learning Typescript. They are not limited to:
- Introduction of Typescript.
- Typescript features
- Typescript components
- Typescript initial program
- Types of Typescript
- Variables of Typescript
- Typescript operators
- Typescript decision making
- Typescript loops
- Functions
- Classes
- Arrays
- Namespace
- Modules
- Ambient .etc.
When you get into the course, the first topic that you’ll need to tackle is Introduction to Typescript. In this topic, the basic info that you’ll need to know is the meaning of Typescript. That is, what is Typescript? I hope you are in the position to answer that. Another key topic that you’ll need to cover is the Typescript features. They are quite a number, but just to mention a few. We have:
- It navigates the codes and prevents bugs
- It supports ES6
- It supports classes, subclasses, interfaces, and sub-interfaces.
- It offers a fantastic productivity level to Microsoft developers.
The next topic that you will find interesting during the course is the Components of Typescript. Here you will get to know what Typescript is made of and how the contents in the study stand in for each other.
Just to bring in a few components. They include.
- The language
- Typescript compiler
- Typescript language Services.
In that guided sequence, you’ll go through Typescript variables, Typescript languages, how Typescript does its decision making.
Conclusion
Typescript codes are trans- compiled into JavaScript. This does not render useless the JavaScript code. They are as well valid Typescript programs since Typescript expands to JavaScript.
There are tools used to convert Typescript into JavaScript. One of them is Typescript to JavaScript compiler.
Typescript type and point out the distinguishing factors between Typescript and JavaScript.
Let’s major on the key point. Remember, a Typescript is an object-oriented, typed, and a compiled language to JavaScript. It was designed by Microsoft C# designer Anders Hejlsberg. From his point of view, he discovered Typescript as a language and a set of a tool as well.
Typescript being a JavaScript compiled language, what are these features it adds to JavaScript. To begin with, Typescript issues a high-level development tool for JavaScript. In addition to that, it issues static checking in the JavaScript project. With Typescript at hand, developers have made a great improvement to the JavaScript language. The Typescript codes are compiled according to the ES5 and ES6 qualities to issue the necessary assistance to the recent browser. I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and it was beneficial to you. Best of luck!

Luis Gillman
Hi, I Am Luis Gillman CA (SA), ACMA
I am a Chartered Accountant (SA) and CIMA (SA) and author of Due Diligence: A strategic and Financial Approach.
The book was published by Lexis Nexis on 2001. In 2010, I wrote the second edition. Much of this website is derived from these two books.
In addition I have published an article entitled the Link Between Due Diligence and Valautions.
Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information published on this website is accurate, the author and owners of this website take no responsibility for any loss or damage suffered as a result of relience upon the information contained therein. Furthermore the bulk of the information is derived from information in 2018 and use therefore is at your on risk. In addition you should consult professional advice if required.