Ampersand.js vs TypeScript

Overview

Ampersand.js

Stacks16

Followers22

Votes31

GitHub Stars811

Forks41

TypeScript

Stacks105.1K

Followers74.2K

Votes503

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

Ampersand.js vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Syntax: Ampersand.js is a lightweight client-side framework that emphasizes a mix of Backbone and React, while TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds optional static typing. Ampersand uses simple syntax inspired by Backbone, making it easy for developers familiar with Backbone to transition. In contrast, TypeScript introduces new syntax for defining types and classes, providing enhanced type checking capabilities that Ampersand.js does not inherently offer.
Static Typing: TypeScript supports static typing, allowing developers to explicitly declare variable types and catch errors during compile-time, leading to more robust code. On the other hand, Ampersand.js does not provide built-in static typing support, relying on dynamic type checking like traditional JavaScript.
Versatility: Ampersand.js is primarily focused on creating single-page applications and provides tools for building data-driven interfaces. In contrast, TypeScript can be utilized in a broader range of applications beyond web development, including Node.js backend services and desktop applications using platforms like Electron.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript, backed by Microsoft, has a thriving community and extensive ecosystem with various libraries, tools, and frameworks to support development. Ampersand.js, while popular in its own right, may have a smaller community and fewer resources available compared to TypeScript.
Compilation: TypeScript code must be transpiled into JavaScript before execution, adding an extra step in the development process. Ampersand.js, being a JavaScript framework, does not require this additional compilation step, making it more straightforward to set up and develop with.
Type Inference: TypeScript features type inference, allowing developers to omit type annotations in many cases while still benefiting from static type checking. Ampersand.js, relying on dynamic typing, does not offer this type inference feature, requiring explicit type declarations throughout the codebase.

In Summary, when choosing between Ampersand.js and TypeScript, consider factors such as syntax familiarity, static typing needs, application versatility, community support, compilation requirements, and type inference capabilities.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Ampersand.js, TypeScript

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

Ampersand.js	TypeScript
We <3 Backbone.js at &yet. It’s brilliantly simple and solves many common problems in developing clientside applications. But we missed the focused simplicity of tiny modules in node-land. We wanted something similar in style and philosophy, but that fully embraced tiny modules, npm, and browserify. Ampersand.js is a well-defined approach to combining (get it?) a series of intentionally tiny modules.	TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 811	GitHub Stars 106.6K
GitHub Forks 41	GitHub Forks 13.1K
Stacks 16	Stacks 105.1K
Followers 22	Followers 74.2K
Votes 31	Votes 503
Pros & Cons
Pros 5 Open source 4 Micromodules 3 CommonJS 3 Loosely Coupled 3 npm	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

What are some alternatives to Ampersand.js, TypeScript?

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.

AngularJS

AngularJS lets you write client-side web applications as if you had a smarter browser. It lets you use good old HTML (or HAML, Jade and friends!) as your template language and lets you extend HTML’s syntax to express your application’s components clearly and succinctly. It automatically synchronizes data from your UI (view) with your JavaScript objects (model) through 2-way data binding.

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.

Vue.js

It is a library for building interactive web interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API.

Related Comparisons

Ampersand.js vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Syntax: Ampersand.js is a lightweight client-side framework that emphasizes a mix of Backbone and React, while TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that adds optional static typing. Ampersand uses simple syntax inspired by Backbone, making it easy for developers familiar with Backbone to transition. In contrast, TypeScript introduces new syntax for defining types and classes, providing enhanced type checking capabilities that Ampersand.js does not inherently offer.
Static Typing: TypeScript supports static typing, allowing developers to explicitly declare variable types and catch errors during compile-time, leading to more robust code. On the other hand, Ampersand.js does not provide built-in static typing support, relying on dynamic type checking like traditional JavaScript.
Versatility: Ampersand.js is primarily focused on creating single-page applications and provides tools for building data-driven interfaces. In contrast, TypeScript can be utilized in a broader range of applications beyond web development, including Node.js backend services and desktop applications using platforms like Electron.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript, backed by Microsoft, has a thriving community and extensive ecosystem with various libraries, tools, and frameworks to support development. Ampersand.js, while popular in its own right, may have a smaller community and fewer resources available compared to TypeScript.
Compilation: TypeScript code must be transpiled into JavaScript before execution, adding an extra step in the development process. Ampersand.js, being a JavaScript framework, does not require this additional compilation step, making it more straightforward to set up and develop with.
Type Inference: TypeScript features type inference, allowing developers to omit type annotations in many cases while still benefiting from static type checking. Ampersand.js, relying on dynamic typing, does not offer this type inference feature, requiring explicit type declarations throughout the codebase.

Ampersand.js vs TypeScript

Overview