Design brief

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  • Solution Need: Creating large-scale JavaScript applications is hard.
  • Loss of efficiency: The structures and definitions that are not included.
  • Compensations: leveraging is achieved through integrating alternate frameworks, IDE, and other tools.

Efficiencies

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  • Aim: TypeScript enables JavaScript as a base language for its application development methodology.
  • Solution Achievement: TypeScript is a (type) superset of the base language that compiles out as standards oriented JavaScript.
  • Usability: cross - browser, OS, host, device.
  • Availability: all open source.
  • Exclusion of solutions: none - all JavaScript solutions are still available (if not redundant). e.g. jQuery.

Effectiveness

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Effectiveness: the features, inclusions, and super-set are the underpinning of developing large applications.

Advantages

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  • Cost: self supported, zero purchase.
  • Training: minimized due to using a working language standard.

Methodology

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  • Loss of efficiency: The type-system enables expressed limits on the capabilities of JavaScript objects, with tools to enforce limits.

First Solution

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  • Achievement: TypeScript allows annotation of parameters
The following can be used in a dot-ts file for TypeScript
function gees (x:string){
var foo= x + x;
alert(foo);
}

:string is the annotation not normally part of JavaScript. TypeScript annotates a semantic subset onto JavaScript to throw errors on nonsensical activity.

function gees (x:number){
var foo = x + x;
alert(foo);
}

In this example the error is created by the alert being an object for strings.

The annotation can also deliver early structuring. As an array:

function foo (x: string[]){
x[0].length
}
function foo (x: () -> string){
x()
}


Second Solution

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  • Achievement: Minimizing the number of annotations needed
  • The type-system makes extensive use of type inference.
    • TypeScript will infer that the variable ‘i’ has the type number. var i = 0;
    • TypeScript will infer from the following function definition that the function thisFunction has return type string.
function thisFunction() { 
return "hello"; 
}


Usage

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  • The compiler is built in TypeScript, and is available as a JS file (tsc.js).
  • The compiler ‘file I/O’ supports Node and Windows Scripting Host file APIs.
  • If the server uses Node.js:
node path/to/tsc.js thisFile1.ts thisFile2.ts
  • Commands run without any input filenames to see the command-line help for tsc.js.
  • TypeScript does not provide a runtime.
  • It needs a module loader, such as requirejs.
  • A TypeScript module can either be generated to CommonJS convention (for use with node.js) or AMD convention (as used in requirejs); which it generates is a compiler switch.

Notes

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TypeScript can be installed as an extension to Visual Studio.

Thus, basic running is as follows
Run the downloaded dot-VSIX file in the TypeScript SDK folder (for completing the installation).
Check the Tools/Extensions for TypeScript
Use Internet Explorer as the default
Use the TypeScript project in the C# new project category
Build, start Debugging, stop Debugging
The dot-js file will be in the (solution explorer) drop down category list position

Resources

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This article is studying and paraphrasing on http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/Anders-Hejlsberg-Introducing-TypeScript and can be altered for lesson purposes. Documentation is available at TypeScript Language Specification.pdf