JSHint vs TypeScript

Overview

TypeScript

Stacks105.1K

Followers74.2K

Votes503

GitHub Stars106.6K

Forks13.1K

JSHint

Stacks1.4K

Followers59

Votes0

JSHint vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Introduction JSHint and TypeScript are both popular tools used for static code analysis in JavaScript development. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that developers should be aware of.

Syntax Checking: JSHint focuses on ensuring the correctness of JavaScript syntax and identifying potential errors or poor coding practices. It provides a set of predefined rules that can be customized to meet specific coding standards. On the other hand, TypeScript goes beyond syntax checking and provides static typing, allowing developers to catch type-related errors during development, which reduces bugs and enhances code quality.
Type Safety: TypeScript enforces strong static typing, allowing developers to specify types for variables, function parameters, and return values. This provides a level of safety by catching type errors at compile-time instead of runtime. JSHint, being a pure JavaScript linter, does not have this feature and relies on manual testing or runtime errors to catch type-related issues.
IDE Integration: TypeScript is tightly integrated with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code. IDEs with TypeScript support offer features like IntelliSense, code completion, and real-time error checking, which significantly enhance the developer experience. JSHint, while it can be integrated with IDEs, doesn't provide the same level of tooling and support out of the box.
ECMAScript Standards: TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript and extends the language by adding features from newer ECMAScript standards as well as its own syntax enhancements. This means developers can leverage the latest JavaScript features even if the target environment doesn't support them directly. JSHint, on the other hand, focuses on enforcing existing JavaScript standards and doesn't introduce new language features.
Compilation Process: TypeScript code needs to be transpiled into JavaScript before it can be executed in the browser or Node.js environment. This extra step adds a compilation process to the development workflow and may introduce additional complexity. In contrast, JSHint operates directly on JavaScript code without any compilation step, making it more lightweight and simpler to integrate into existing workflows.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript has gained significant community support and has a growing ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools specifically designed for TypeScript development. This includes popular frameworks like Angular, which provide extensive TypeScript support. JSHint, although widely used, doesn't have the same level of dedicated community and ecosystem around it.

In summary, JSHint focuses on JavaScript syntax checking and provides customization options, while TypeScript adds static typing, enhanced tooling, and extends the language itself. TypeScript offers stronger type safety, IDE integration, ECMAScript features, a compilation process, and a robust community and ecosystem support compared to JSHint.

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Advice on TypeScript, JSHint

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	JSHint
TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.	It is a community-driven tool to detect errors and potential problems in JavaScript code. It is open source and can easily adjust in the environment you expect your code to execute.
-	community-driven tool; javascript code checker
Statistics
GitHub Stars 106.6K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 13.1K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 105.1K	Stacks 1.4K
Followers 74.2K	Followers 59
Votes 503	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	Cons 1 Non-intuitive configuration
Integrations
No integrations available	Zendesk Bootstrap

What are some alternatives to TypeScript, JSHint?

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.

Related Comparisons

JSHint vs TypeScript: What are the differences?

Syntax Checking: JSHint focuses on ensuring the correctness of JavaScript syntax and identifying potential errors or poor coding practices. It provides a set of predefined rules that can be customized to meet specific coding standards. On the other hand, TypeScript goes beyond syntax checking and provides static typing, allowing developers to catch type-related errors during development, which reduces bugs and enhances code quality.
Type Safety: TypeScript enforces strong static typing, allowing developers to specify types for variables, function parameters, and return values. This provides a level of safety by catching type errors at compile-time instead of runtime. JSHint, being a pure JavaScript linter, does not have this feature and relies on manual testing or runtime errors to catch type-related issues.
IDE Integration: TypeScript is tightly integrated with popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) like Visual Studio Code. IDEs with TypeScript support offer features like IntelliSense, code completion, and real-time error checking, which significantly enhance the developer experience. JSHint, while it can be integrated with IDEs, doesn't provide the same level of tooling and support out of the box.
ECMAScript Standards: TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript and extends the language by adding features from newer ECMAScript standards as well as its own syntax enhancements. This means developers can leverage the latest JavaScript features even if the target environment doesn't support them directly. JSHint, on the other hand, focuses on enforcing existing JavaScript standards and doesn't introduce new language features.
Compilation Process: TypeScript code needs to be transpiled into JavaScript before it can be executed in the browser or Node.js environment. This extra step adds a compilation process to the development workflow and may introduce additional complexity. In contrast, JSHint operates directly on JavaScript code without any compilation step, making it more lightweight and simpler to integrate into existing workflows.
Community and Ecosystem: TypeScript has gained significant community support and has a growing ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools specifically designed for TypeScript development. This includes popular frameworks like Angular, which provide extensive TypeScript support. JSHint, although widely used, doesn't have the same level of dedicated community and ecosystem around it.

JSHint vs TypeScript

Overview