Programming TypeScript

Preface

This is a book for programmers of all walks: professional JavaScript engineers, C# people, Java sympathizers, Python lovers, Ruby aficionados, Haskell nerds. Whatever language(s) you write in, so long as you have some experience programming and know the basics of functions, variables, classes, and errors, this book is for you. Some experience with JavaScript, including a basic knowledge of the Document Object Model (DOM) and the network, will help you along the way—while we don’t dive deep into these concepts, they are a wellspring of excellent examples, and if you’re not familiar with them the examples might not make as much sense.

Regardless of what programming languages you’ve used in the past, what unites all of us is our shared experience of tracking down exceptions, tracing through code line by line to figure out what went wrong and how we can fix it. This is the experience that TypeScript helps prevent by examining your code automatically and pointing out the mistakes you may have missed.

It’s OK if you haven’t worked with a statically typed language before. I’ll teach you about types and how to use them effectively to make your programs crash less, document your code better, and scale your applications across more users, engineers, and servers. I’ll try to avoid big words when I can, and explain ideas in a way that’s intuitive, memorable, and practical, using lots of examples along the way to help keep things concrete.

That’s the thing about TypeScript: unlike ...