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The Node (and more) Banter · Wednesday · 33 min

No, we should not distribute TypeScript files

Jarred Sumner’s argument is that for JavaScript and TypeScript to stay relevant in an AI world, where moving a codebase between languages is suddenly cheap, they have to get as fast as Rust or Go. Luca and Matteo work through what that costs. AssemblyScript already solved it by not being TypeScript. Porffor solved it by compiling JavaScript and keeping every check. Bun is trying to sit in the middle, and the middle is where the problems live: TypeScript is not one language but a multiverse of them depending on your tsconfig, and publishing raw source turns one definition per dependency into roughly ten times the work for every checker downstream. There is also the one requirement the TypeScript team gave Node.js when type stripping landed: never run TypeScript from node_modules, because it breaks the ecosystem. Push the idea far enough, and you get types enforced at runtime, which is not JavaScript and not TypeScript. Different language, different runtime.

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Jarred Sumner’s argument is that for JavaScript and TypeScript to stay relevant in an AI world, where moving a codebase between languages is suddenly cheap, they have to get as fast as Rust or Go.


Luca and Matteo work through what that costs.


AssemblyScript already solved it by not being TypeScript. Porffor solved it by compiling JavaScript and keeping every check. Bun is trying to sit in the middle, and the middle is where the problems live: TypeScript is not one language but a multiverse of them depending on your tsconfig, and publishing raw source turns one definition per dependency into roughly ten times the work for every checker downstream.


There is also the one requirement the TypeScript team gave Node.js when type stripping landed: never run TypeScript from node_modules, because it breaks the ecosystem. Push the idea far enough, and you get types enforced at runtime, which is not JavaScript and not TypeScript. Different language, different runtime.

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