The Lies we Tell Ourselves using TypeScript
Description
TypeScript is a curious thing. It's one of the most beloved _and_ used programming languages in the world, yet it does not exist without the past and future developments of another programming language: JavaScript. This duality of being dependent on everything that happens in JavaScript leads to very interesting situations: Error messages in our code that are hard to explain, backend responses that look good at compile time but don't add up at runtime, "as unknown as any as Something", and lies. So many, hidden and hard-to-track lies.
This talk will shed a light on the yellow spots of the blue carpet you're working with on a daily basis. We will see all the situations where we cheat the type system and bend the rules to our liking, not because we want to, but because JavaScript demands this from us.
In the end, you won't be able to look at your code in the same way again. But don't worry, the truth is somewhere hidden, and we are going to figure out where.
Key takeaways
Never trust your annotations
Embrace any, then extinguish it
Befriend assertions
About Stefan
Stefan Baumgartner is a software architect working at Dynatrace and the owner of oida.dev. He is the author of “TypeScript in 50 Lessons”, published by Smashing Magazine, and of the "TypeScript cookbook", to be published by O'Reilly.. He organizes ScriptConf, TSConf:EU, DevOne and Rust Linz. Stefan enjoys Italian food, Belgian beer and British vinyl records.
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