Overview

TypeScript

Stacks105.1K

Followers74.2K

Votes502

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

LiveScript

Stacks164

Followers15

Votes0

GitHub Stars2.4K

Forks155

LiveScript vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

LiveScript vs TypeScript

LiveScript and TypeScript are both programming languages that are designed to improve upon JavaScript in different ways. While they share some similarities, they also have key differences that set them apart.

Syntax: One of the main differences between LiveScript and TypeScript is their syntax. LiveScript aims to have a cleaner and more expressive syntax compared to JavaScript, with features like automatic parentheses insertion and significant whitespace. On the other hand, TypeScript maintains a similar syntax to JavaScript, adding optional static typing and additional features through type annotations.
Static Typing: TypeScript introduces static typing to JavaScript, allowing developers to define and enforce types for variables, function parameters, and return values. This helps catch potential runtime errors during compile-time and improves code readability by providing clearer documentation for the expected data types. In contrast, LiveScript does not provide static typing and relies on JavaScript's dynamic typing system.
Compatibility: As a superset of JavaScript, TypeScript is designed to be highly compatible with existing JavaScript codebases. This means that developers can gradually adopt TypeScript in their projects, leveraging its features without necessarily rewriting the entire codebase. LiveScript, on the other hand, is a separate language that compiles to JavaScript, requiring a more involved migration process for existing projects.
Language Features: TypeScript introduces several language features that are not present in JavaScript, such as interfaces, generics, and decorators. These additional features provide powerful tools for developers to write more maintainable and scalable code. LiveScript, while providing a more concise syntax, does not introduce new language features beyond what JavaScript already offers.
Tooling and Community Support: TypeScript benefits from being developed and maintained by Microsoft, which has led to wide industry adoption, extensive tooling support, and a large community of developers. This means that TypeScript has robust IDE integration, documentation, and a variety of third-party libraries available. LiveScript, being a smaller language, may have less comprehensive tooling and community support, although it still has an active user base and community.
Learning Curve: Due to its similarity to JavaScript, TypeScript has a relatively low learning curve for developers who are already familiar with JavaScript. The introduction of static typing may require some adjustment, but overall, TypeScript's gradual adoption and incremental learning approach make it easier for developers to pick up. LiveScript, with its distinct syntax and different programming paradigm, may have a steeper learning curve for developers who are primarily experienced in JavaScript.

In summary, LiveScript focuses on providing a cleaner and more expressive syntax for JavaScript, while TypeScript introduces static typing and other language features to enhance code maintainability and scalability. The choice between the two depends on the specific needs of the project and the familiarity of the development team with each language.

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Advice on TypeScript, LiveScript

Peter

May 17, 2019

Reviewon

TypeScript

I use TypeScript because:

incredible developer tooling and community support
actively developed and supported by Microsoft (yes, I like Microsoft) ;)
easier to make sense of a TS codebase because the annotations provide so much more context than plain JS
refactors become easier (VSCode has superb support for TS)

I've switched back and forth between TS and Flow and decided a year ago to abandon Flow completely in favor of TS. I don't want to bash Flow, however, my main grievances are very poor tooling (editor integration leaves much to be desired), a slower release cycle, and subpar docs and community support.

135k views135k

Comments

Jarvis

May 16, 2019

Reviewon

TypeScript

Flow (JS)

I use TypeScript because it isn't just about validating the types I'm expecting to receive though that is a huge part of it too. Flow (JS) seems to be a type system only. TypeScript also allows you to use the latest features of JavaScript while also providing the type checking. To be fair to Flow (JS), I have not used it, but likely wouldn't have due to the additional features I get from TypeScript.

168k views168k

Comments

David

VP Engineering at Trolley

May 16, 2019

Reviewon

JavaScript

Flow (JS)

TypeScript

We originally (in 2017) started rewriting our platform from JavaScript to Flow (JS) but found the library support for Flow was lacking. After switching gears to TypeScript we've never looked back. At this point we're finding that frontend and backend libraries are supporting TypeScript out of the box and where the support is missing that the commuity is typically got a solution in hand.

173k views173k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

TypeScript	LiveScript
TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.	It has a straightforward mapping to JavaScript and allows you to write expressive code devoid of repetitive boilerplate. While LiveScript adds many features to assist in functional style programming, it also has many improvements for object oriented and imperative programming.
-	Functional style programming; Imperative programming
Statistics
GitHub Stars 106.6K	GitHub Stars 2.4K
GitHub Forks 13.1K	GitHub Forks 155
Stacks 105.1K	Stacks 164
Followers 74.2K	Followers 15
Votes 502	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 173 More intuitive and type safe javascript 105 Type safe 80 JavaScript superset 48 The best AltJS ever 27 Best AltJS for BackEnd Cons 5 Code may look heavy and confusing 4 Hype	No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available	JavaScript Python Node.js

What are some alternatives to TypeScript, LiveScript?

JavaScript

JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

Python

Python is a general purpose programming language created by Guido Van Rossum. Python is most praised for its elegant syntax and readable code, if you are just beginning your programming career python suits you best.

PHP

Fast, flexible and pragmatic, PHP powers everything from your blog to the most popular websites in the world.

Ruby

Ruby is a language of careful balance. Its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto, blended parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that balanced functional programming with imperative programming.

Java

Java is a programming language and computing platform first released by Sun Microsystems in 1995. There are lots of applications and websites that will not work unless you have Java installed, and more are created every day. Java is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops to datacenters, game consoles to scientific supercomputers, cell phones to the Internet, Java is everywhere!

Golang

Go is expressive, concise, clean, and efficient. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel type system enables flexible and modular program construction. Go compiles quickly to machine code yet has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. It's a fast, statically typed, compiled language that feels like a dynamically typed, interpreted language.

HTML5

HTML5 is a core technology markup language of the Internet used for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web. As of October 2014 this is the final and complete fifth revision of the HTML standard of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The previous version, HTML 4, was standardised in 1997.

C#

C# (pronounced "See Sharp") is a simple, modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. C# has its roots in the C family of languages and will be immediately familiar to C, C++, Java, and JavaScript programmers.

Scala

Scala is an acronym for “Scalable Language”. This means that Scala grows with you. You can play with it by typing one-line expressions and observing the results. But you can also rely on it for large mission critical systems, as many companies, including Twitter, LinkedIn, or Intel do. To some, Scala feels like a scripting language. Its syntax is concise and low ceremony; its types get out of the way because the compiler can infer them.

Elixir

Elixir leverages the Erlang VM, known for running low-latency, distributed and fault-tolerant systems, while also being successfully used in web development and the embedded software domain.