Overview

CoffeeScript

Stacks3.4K

Followers1.2K

Votes1.0K

GitHub Stars16.6K

Forks2.0K

TypeScript

Stacks96.5K

Followers74.1K

Votes501

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

CoffeeScript vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Comparison between CoffeeScript and TypeScript

CoffeeScript and TypeScript are both programming languages that compile to JavaScript and are designed to improve developer productivity and code maintainability. However, there are several key differences between the two.

Syntax: CoffeeScript has a more concise and expressive syntax compared to TypeScript. It eliminates the need for semicolons and curly braces, making the code more readable and reducing the likelihood of syntax errors. On the other hand, TypeScript retains a similar syntax to JavaScript, adding optional type annotations and some new features from ECMAScript standards.
Type System: TypeScript introduces a static type system, allowing developers to define the types of variables, function parameters, and return types. This enables better code analysis, error detection, and improved IDE support for autocompletion and refactoring. CoffeeScript, on the other hand, does not have any built-in type checking or static typing, relying solely on JavaScript's dynamic typing.
Compatibility: TypeScript is designed to be a superset of JavaScript, meaning that any valid JavaScript code is also valid TypeScript code. This makes it easy for developers to gradually migrate existing JavaScript projects to TypeScript. CoffeeScript, on the other hand, introduces new syntax and features that may not be compatible with all JavaScript libraries and frameworks, requiring more effort to integrate with existing codebases.
JavaScript Interoperability: TypeScript provides seamless interoperability with JavaScript, allowing developers to leverage existing JavaScript libraries and frameworks. It allows for incremental adoption, where TypeScript code can call JavaScript code and vice versa. While CoffeeScript also interoperates with JavaScript, it introduces its own syntax and abstractions, which may require more careful consideration when integrating with JavaScript code.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript has gained significant traction in recent years and has a large and active community. It is widely adopted by major frameworks and tools, such as Angular, React, and Visual Studio Code. This strong community support ensures better documentation, third-party libraries, and developer resources. CoffeeScript, on the other hand, has a smaller community and ecosystem, which may result in fewer resources and support.
Development Experience: TypeScript provides superior development experience due to its strong static typing, tooling support, and powerful IDE integration. It enables features like code completion, refactoring, and error checking, leading to fewer bugs and increased productivity. While CoffeeScript enhances JavaScript in many ways, it does not provide the same level of IDE support and static analysis tools.

In summary, CoffeeScript offers a more concise syntax and can be easier to read, while TypeScript provides stronger typing, better tooling support, and a wider community. The choice between the two depends on the specific requirements of the project and the preference of the development team.

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Advice on CoffeeScript, 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

CoffeeScript	TypeScript
It adds syntactic sugar inspired by Ruby, Python and Haskell in an effort to enhance JavaScript's brevity and readability. Specific additional features include list comprehension and de-structuring assignment.	TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.
String Interpolation; Statement Modifiers; Callback Handling; Comprehensions; The Fat Arrow; Scoping; Clean JavaScript Output.	-
Statistics
GitHub Stars 16.6K	GitHub Stars 106.6K
GitHub Forks 2.0K	GitHub Forks 13.1K
Stacks 3.4K	Stacks 96.5K
Followers 1.2K	Followers 74.1K
Votes 1.0K	Votes 501
Pros & Cons
Pros 199 Easy to read 179 Faster to write 126 Syntactic sugar 104 Elegant 104 Readable Cons 3 No ES6 1 Corner cases in syntax 1 Unclear what will be grouped to {…} 1 Parentheses required in 0-ary function calls	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 CoffeeScript, 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.

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.