TypeScript vs jsdoc

Overview

TypeScript

Stacks105.1K

Followers74.2K

Votes503

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

jsdoc

Stacks784

Followers155

Votes6

TypeScript vs jsdoc: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this website, we will explore the key differences between TypeScript and JSDoc.

Type System Support: TypeScript has built-in support for static typing, allowing developers to specify the types of variables, function parameters, and return values. This helps catch type-related errors during compile-time, leading to more robust and reliable code. On the other hand, JSDoc is a documentation tool that allows developers to add type annotations as comments to JavaScript code. However, JSDoc does not provide the same level of type checking and compile-time error detection as TypeScript.
Compilation: TypeScript requires a separate compilation step, where the TypeScript code is transpiled into plain JavaScript code before it can run in a browser or node environment. This allows TypeScript to support newer ECMAScript features and enforce type checking. In contrast, JSDoc does not require any compilation step since it is purely a documentation tool.
Language Features: TypeScript introduces additional language features and syntax that are not present in JavaScript. This includes support for classes, interfaces, modules, enums, and more. These language features help developers write more structured and maintainable code. JSDoc, on the other hand, does not introduce any new language features and is primarily focused on providing type annotations and documentation.
Tooling: TypeScript has its own development environment and tooling ecosystem, including a compiler, linter, and IDE support. This comprehensive tooling ecosystem provides advanced features like code completion, refactoring, and error reporting. JSDoc, on the other hand, is agnostic to the development environment and can be used with various JavaScript tooling. However, it may not provide the same level of rich tooling support as TypeScript.
Type Inference: TypeScript has a powerful type inference system that can automatically infer the types of variables based on their usage. This reduces the need for explicit type annotations in many cases, leading to more concise code. JSDoc, on the other hand, relies primarily on explicit type annotations added as comments.
Community and Adoption: TypeScript has gained significant popularity and has a large and active community of developers. This means that there are plenty of resources, libraries, and frameworks available for TypeScript development. JSDoc, while widely used for documenting JavaScript code, does not have the same level of community adoption and support.

In summary, TypeScript offers built-in static typing, compilation support, additional language features, tooling ecosystem, powerful type inference, and a large community. JSDoc, on the other hand, focuses primarily on providing type annotations and documentation and can be used with various JavaScript tooling.

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Manual

Advice on TypeScript, jsdoc

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	jsdoc
TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.	JSDoc 3 is an API documentation generator for JavaScript, similar to JavaDoc or PHPDoc. You add documentation comments directly to your source code, right along side the code itself. The JSDoc Tool will scan your source code, and generate a complete HTML documentation website for you.
-	Up and running easily; Command line interface;
Statistics
GitHub Stars 106.6K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 13.1K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 105.1K	Stacks 784
Followers 74.2K	Followers 155
Votes 503	Votes 6
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	Pros 2 Far less verbose 1 Actively maintained 1 Does almost everything TS does 1 No compiler needed 1 Simpler type safe than TypeScript

What are some alternatives to TypeScript, jsdoc?

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.

Postman

It is the only complete API development environment, used by nearly five million developers and more than 100,000 companies worldwide.

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.

Related Comparisons

TypeScript vs jsdoc: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this website, we will explore the key differences between TypeScript and JSDoc.

Type System Support: TypeScript has built-in support for static typing, allowing developers to specify the types of variables, function parameters, and return values. This helps catch type-related errors during compile-time, leading to more robust and reliable code. On the other hand, JSDoc is a documentation tool that allows developers to add type annotations as comments to JavaScript code. However, JSDoc does not provide the same level of type checking and compile-time error detection as TypeScript.
Compilation: TypeScript requires a separate compilation step, where the TypeScript code is transpiled into plain JavaScript code before it can run in a browser or node environment. This allows TypeScript to support newer ECMAScript features and enforce type checking. In contrast, JSDoc does not require any compilation step since it is purely a documentation tool.
Language Features: TypeScript introduces additional language features and syntax that are not present in JavaScript. This includes support for classes, interfaces, modules, enums, and more. These language features help developers write more structured and maintainable code. JSDoc, on the other hand, does not introduce any new language features and is primarily focused on providing type annotations and documentation.
Tooling: TypeScript has its own development environment and tooling ecosystem, including a compiler, linter, and IDE support. This comprehensive tooling ecosystem provides advanced features like code completion, refactoring, and error reporting. JSDoc, on the other hand, is agnostic to the development environment and can be used with various JavaScript tooling. However, it may not provide the same level of rich tooling support as TypeScript.
Type Inference: TypeScript has a powerful type inference system that can automatically infer the types of variables based on their usage. This reduces the need for explicit type annotations in many cases, leading to more concise code. JSDoc, on the other hand, relies primarily on explicit type annotations added as comments.
Community and Adoption: TypeScript has gained significant popularity and has a large and active community of developers. This means that there are plenty of resources, libraries, and frameworks available for TypeScript development. JSDoc, while widely used for documenting JavaScript code, does not have the same level of community adoption and support.

TypeScript vs jsdoc

Overview

TypeScript vs jsdoc: What are the differences?