An Introduction to TypeScript

Join us for our February meeting where James Churchill will present "An Introduction to TypeScript or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Static Types". If you're new to TypeScript and static typing in JavaScript, this meetup is the perfect way to get started!

Agenda

6:00pm Food and Networking
6:20pm Welcome
6:30pm An Introduction to TypeScript or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Static Types - James Churchill
7:45pm Open Q&A and/or Lightning Talks

An Introduction to TypeScript or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Static Types

As JavaScript applications continue to grow in size and complexity, the teams that develop and support them often find themselves looking for ways to help increase productivity and reduce errors. A well-known practice for reducing coding errors is to employ unit testing. A more recent approach is to add static typing to JavaScript by utilizing technologies like Microsoft’s TypeScript.

Adding static types to JavaScript helps developers to detect errors in their code at design time, without having to execute their code. Static typing dramatically improves the overall development experience by adding support for symbol-based navigation, statement completion, and code refactoring.

In this talk, we’ll walk through a series of demos showcasing how TypeScript brings static typing to JavaScript. We’ll look at how TypeScript can can help you write better code, and how it won’t. By the end of this talk, you’ll be on your way to answering the question “are static types a good fit for my JavaScript project?”

Topics include:

• Comparing static and dynamic typing
• Reviewing the benefits and disadvantages of static and dynamic typing
• Leveraging TypeScript in your projects

About James

James is a self-confessed geek, who enjoys talking about programming and learning new technologies. At the beginning of 2016, he joined the Treehouse team as a teacher and is excited to have the opportunity to help beginners become developers. Last year, James presented two live streamed training sessions as part of Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2017 Launch event and enjoys participating in the developer community, presenting talks in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, Tennessee, and Kentucky.