Developers are in the midst of an era where the software industry is evolving at a faster pace than ever before and developers are getting too much thrown at them. It's mostly developers who are the early adopters of new “things,” such as new languages, frameworks, libraries, and tools, that have yet to be vetted by businesses. And TypeScript is one of those languages that has yet to prove itself.
History
Work on TypeScript started several years ago, and TypeScript first appeared in 2012. As a matter of fact, I was at the MVP Summit that year and I chatted with Andres Hejlsberg and asked what he was working on next. Andres said, “TypeScript,” with a smile.
Andres Hejlsberg is the father of C# language. Before C#, Andres created Delphi and Turbo Pascal. Currently, Andres is focusing on TypeScript. In the following video, Richard Campbell interviews Andres Hejlsberg and talks about the future of .NET and TypeScript.
What is TypeScript?
As defined on the TypeScript website:
TypeScript is JavaScript that scales.
TypeScript, created by Microsoft, is a superset of JavaScript that is designed to build large, scalable, enterprise Web applications.
TypeScript is free, open source, and licensed under the Apache 2 License. TypeScript runs in any Web browser, any host, and any operating system.
Here is a video in which Andres talks about What TypeScript Is.
TypeScript was developed for programmers who were used to structured programming such as using classes, methods, and properties that are not used to build JavaScript. TypeScript brings object-oriented programming and optional static typing disciplines to JavaScript.
TypeScript compiler is written in TypeScript.
Learn more on TypeScript on C# Corner here >
TypeScript Trends
Recently, TypeScript got good press when Google announced that it will use TypeScript as a part of its Angular 2 development. Besides Angular 2, there are several other frameworks including Ionic, NativeScrupt, Aurelia, and the Dojo Toolkit that use TypeScript actively.
Look at the Google Trends of “TypeScript” over the past 3 years and the chart is clearly on the rise.
As a matter of fact, the TypeScript adoption in recent months has reached over 1 million downloads per month via npm. Obviously, the number also include auto downloads.
What is new in TypeScript?
Here is a Build video in which Andres talks about the new features of TypeScript.
How about the future?
So, what is the future of TypeScript?
Let me ask you this. Did you think Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and C# would become as popular as they had? No one could.
The Future of TypeScript is Bright.
Today, .NET Framework has become an enterprise name to build Windows, Web, and mobile applications and C# is the prime language to build .NET applications.
Today, the same guy who created Delphi, Turbo Pascal, and C# is behind TypeScript. I am very confident that the future of TypeScript is bright.
Recommended reading: What is the future of .NET