JavaScript vs TypeScript

In this article at OpenGenus, you must have the complete idea of the similarities and differences between JavaScript and TypeScript.

Table of contents:

1. What is JavaScript?
2. Features of JavaScript
3. What is TypeScript?
4. Similarities between JavaScript and TypeScript
5. Differences between JavaScript and TypeScript

What is JavaScript?

JavaScript (or JS for short) is a light-weight object-oriented programming language which is used by several websites for scripting the webpages. It is an interpreted(a type of programming language that is executed directly by an interpreter, without being compiled into machine code beforehand), full-fledged programming language that enables dynamic interactivity on websites also seen as the language of the web because almost all webpages today are written in JS!.

Features of JavaScript

Features of JavaScript includes:

1. It is supportable in several operating systems including, Windows, macOS, etc.
2. It is a light-weighted and interpreted language.
3. It is an object-oriented programming language that uses prototypes rather than using classes.
4. JavaScript follows the syntax and structure of the C programming language. Thus, it is a structured programming language.
5. It is single threaded compared to other languages that are multi-Threaded.
6. JavaScript is a weakly typed language, where certain types are implicitly cast (depending on the operation). Which brings us to its TypeScript!

What is TypeScript?

TypeScript(TS for short) is a strongly typed programming language that builds on JavaScript, giving you better tooling at any scale. Which means it is built on JavaScript and also adds some syntatic sugar to the language. Technically, TypeScript is ONLY used in development as it enables us to write JS strictly and makes our code less exposed to bugs. Typescript is a superset of JS which means TypeScript understands JavaScript and uses type inference to give you great tooling without additional code. So all the features of JavaScript are same with TypeScript.

Similarities between JavaScript and TypeScript

Similarities between JavaScript and TypeScript are:

1. Both JS and TS are programming languages that are used for developing web applications and other software.
2. Both JS and TS support asynchronous programming, which is essential for building responsive and scalable web applications.
3. Both JS and TS are object-oriented programming languages.
4. Both JS and TS can run on the client-side (browser) as well as on the server-side (backend).

Differences between JavaScript and TypeScript

Differences between JavaScript and TypeScript includes:

1. TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript. This means that TypeScript includes all of the features of JavaScript, but also adds some additional features.
2. TypeScript supports modern ES6+ features like classes, interfaces, modules, and arrow functions, which are not available in older versions of JavaScript.
3. TypeScript requires compilation before it can be run, while JavaScript is interpreted at runtime.
4. TypeScript is a strongly-typed language, which means that every variable and function must have a specific type. This can help catch errors at compile-time rather than at runtime, which can save time and reduce bugs in the code.
5. TypeScript code can be harder to read for developers who are not familiar with TypeScript, due to the additional syntax required for type annotations.

With this article at OpenGenus, you must have the complete idea of JavaScript vs TypeScript.