Why have all JavaScript developers not moved to TypeScript?

I asked this question on Twitter last week and got ~100 replies.

Sharing my learnings from the responses, as it gives insight into what keeps developers from migrating to new tech. Even when the alternative is better.

Let’s get into it.

TL;DR

• Conquering JavaScript first
• Vanilla JavaScript works
• Sorry, too soon
• Well, it depends
• ECMA is getting there

Conquering JavaScript first 👨‍🏫️

A lot of newbies and beginners gave the “I am still learning JS” response.

Understandably they don’t want to take up more than they can chew at the moment.

Most of them are interested in trying it out in future, whereas some were looking for guidance on if they should.

Vanilla JavaScript works 👌

Developers already working with JS, had a pressing question → “What’s the need?”.

They don’t plan to migrate due to having a large codebase written in JavaScript, ease of debugging, or simply because they are comfortable with JS as it gets the job done.

Their motto: “If it works, don’t touch it”.

Sorry, too soon 🕒

Some experienced JS developers have learned TypeScript in plans, but think the right time has not come yet.

Unlike developers who are not willing to migrate, these devs see value in TypeScript. Just that they didn’t get the right project yet, which justifies the learning curve.

Also, they are hoping that tooling (like support for running TS code natively in the browser) will improve in the future.

Well, it depends 🧐

Some developers have spent time learning TypeScript, but don't use it for every project.

As per them, it’s suited when:

• Working in a team
• Writing production apps
• Codebase is huge

They said "For personal projects and simple apps, TypeScript is an overkill".

ECMA is getting there 🏁

Lastly, a few responses were about ECMA 6 already supporting enough modernity to write clean code in JS.

These devs suggest, if you understand JavaScript well enough with tooling built around it, you don’t need TypeScript.

Also, they are hopeful that useful features in TypeScript will eventually be included in native JavaScript so why bother with 2 learning curves.

Wrapping up 📝

Share in comments your motivation to move or not move to TypeScript?

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