Switch to TypeScript

[PJB3005]

Like, whether or not JS or the usage of a browser is bad is another debate.

At least have the sanity to use TypeScript so you get static typing. You'll thank me in a few months.

[Kinrany]

Bluespess has less than 10k loc, it's still doable!

Though configuring TS is a pain.

[HeadClot]

Why not some Typescript bindings then? I am not a fan of rewriting something in typescript if it works good enough. Here is an automation tool for that.

[PJB3005]

JS works good enough until it doesn't (read: you have to refactor anything at all). At that point you probably don't even realize how much time a sane programming language would've saved you because you made the mistake of writing 10kLOC in JS.

[SupremeTechnopriest]

Is this project even alive? I though SS3D was the new open source SS13 remake.

Typescript is verbose. I can see why you would not want to use it. It only protects you from yourself. If you trust yourself, pure JS will save you a ton of keystrokes and headache. I think the best argument I've heard for TS is that it helps new people onboard to a project and know whats going on more quickly. I can agree with that, but its still just a glorified linter... That said, AssemblyScript is a better use case for TypeScript. It actually compiles to something faster rather than being a verbose safeguard.

I have written parts of my games in AssemblyScript and really enjoyed working with it. I have rewritten JS projects in TS only to refactor back to JS because of some bug or limitation in TS.

-- Two cents from a slowly reforming TypeScript hater.

[PJB3005]

Is this project even alive?

no

I though SS3D was the new open source SS13 remake.

And also SS14 and Unitystation, if you want remakes that are actually making progress rather than art assets.

It only protects you from yourself. If you trust yourself, pure JS will save you a ton of keystrokes and headache.

I don't know of any nice way to put this so I'm just gonna be blunt. That shows you have no idea what you're talking about. Static typing does far more than being a glorified linter. Here are some of the things it provides if your IDE isn't hot garbage:

• Actually functional code navigation so you can jump to class/function/field definitions without having to resort to barbaric methods like doing annoying global code searches for the name of the symbol you want.

• It makes refactoring 20 times easier because you can just do stuff like massive symbol renames with a few keystrokes. Try this in JS and it won't be able to rename stuff outside of the same class definition. You once again have to resort to barbaric methods like global code search to try to find usages which is cumbersome and error prone. And you fail to refactor one thing and you've just created an obscure bug some unfortunate player will run into in a week's time.

• You get code completion that actually works reliably compared to JS where code completion only works in the most obvious situations and more often than not does not.

• You know, a guarantee that the code you just wrote isn't gonna blow up due to a type or you misremembering a variable name.

If you are somehow still not convinced, let me attack:

If you trust yourself

If you "trust yourself" and you are writing anything larger than a couple files / a thousand lines, I'd say you're at best a naive idiot. You get to read and rewrite code you wrote 1 year ago. 2 years ago. at 2 AM 2 years ago. somebody else is going to have to do that. All of these things become exponentially more difficult compared to a real language like TS or C# when you don't have good static typing, for the reasons listed above.

I can say this with certainty because I know for a fact that DM's barely-functional static typing is the only thing keeping SS13 development going. I replaced the /vg/ scheduler with stonedMC first try and all I had to do was follow the paper trail of compiler errors created by deleting the scheduler. That was it. Try that in a codebase without static typing. You might as well give up.

SS13 has like 500,000+ lines of DM code. You're not maintaining that amount of content and complexity in a language without static typing.

[SupremeTechnopriest]

You don't need static typing for refactor and intellisense to work in your IDE.... What year are you trapped in? Why are you so angry? Show me on this doll where the bad JS touched you.

Write the game in C#. That I can get behind. At least C# compiles (rather than transpiles). You actually gain performance by writing all that verbosity, not just a message saying "Hey amateur, you made a boo boo". IMO, AssemblyScript is the only "real" use case for typescript, but I can see your point about larger projects with larger teams. If there are a lot of hands in the pot and I couldn't chose a real typed language, I would probably (begrudgingly) employ typescript.

Id almost rather write the entire project myself then have to write 100s of definitions that literally transpile to nothing. If I'm going to chose a typed language for the job, its not going to be TypeScript.

[PJB3005]

You don't need static typing for refactor and intellisense to work in your IDE....

For it to work at all decently, you do. I tried the built-in intellisense in VSCode for a few minutes. TypeScript was perfect and what I would expect from a statically typed language. JS was a joke.

Unless Microsoft just happens to include a very terrible JS language server in VSCode (doubt), I'm not buying it.

[SupremeTechnopriest]

Of course its going to be better with TS, you have spent hundreds of hours writing definition files LOL. Doesn't mean its non existent for JS. JS tooling, especially in VS Code is getting really good.

[SupremeTechnopriest]

Listen, I get the arguments you and the rest of the TS community are making in defense of TS.... However at the end of the day it still just transpiles to JS. You get some development benefits and some development detriments. Zero benefits in production (aside from AssemblyScript). It's up to the project manager to weigh those benefits and detriments against the job at hand.

In my opinion, I'd rather my team focus on compete test coverage than writing a desc for every facet. I also like to ship software, not spend countless hours writing things that don't benefit the end product directly.

The intellisense is nice though. :)

[Kinrany]

JS tooling, especially in VS Code is getting really good.

Which is based on TS type inference...

[SupremeTechnopriest]

@Kinrany Love it, abstract it away where it belongs. Im not knocking the tool, it's great in theory. Just don't pass me the tech debt.

[Kinrany]

Tech debt? What are you talking about?

[SupremeTechnopriest]

@Kinrany Maybe not tech debt, I imagine TS claims to prevent tech debt. More, making me inherit the responsibility of writing a definition for every single structure in my application. Increasing my iteration time substantially. It's also SLOW to develop in. We finally, almost, have ES6 everywhere and I have dropped babel from most of my projects. Transpiling every change is extremely slow and annoying in TS. It adds a more work to achieve less and at the end of the day runs no different.