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TypeScript vs doT.js: What are the differences?

  1. Static vs Dynamic Typing: TypeScript is a statically typed language, meaning that variable types are known at compile time, helping to catch potential errors early in the development process. In contrast, doT.js is a dynamic templating language where variable types are resolved at runtime, offering more flexibility but potentially introducing errors that might not be caught until runtime.

  2. Language vs Template Engine: TypeScript is a full-fledged programming language that compiles down to JavaScript, allowing for the use of classes, interfaces, modules, and other advanced language features. On the other hand, doT.js is primarily a template engine used for generating HTML markup from data, focusing on simplifying the task of rendering dynamic content on the client-side.

  3. Compilation Process: In TypeScript, code is compiled before execution to plain JavaScript, ensuring compatibility with all browsers and providing the benefit of type checking. doT.js, however, does not require a compilation step as it is directly interpreted by the browser, making it more lightweight and suitable for quick prototyping or small-scale projects.

  4. Community Support and Ecosystem: TypeScript has a large and active community, with extensive documentation, tools, and libraries available for building complex applications. On the other hand, while doT.js also has a supportive community, it is more focused on templating needs and may not offer as wide a range of resources for other aspects of development.

  5. Error Handling and Debugging: Due to its static typing nature, TypeScript can help prevent a wide range of errors during development and provides detailed error messages to aid debugging. In contrast, doT.js may be more prone to runtime errors related to variable types or data manipulation, requiring a thorough testing approach to ensure the reliability of the templates.

  6. Use Cases and Scope: TypeScript is commonly used for building large-scale applications, especially in the context of frontend development with frameworks like Angular or React. doT.js, however, is typically utilized for smaller projects or focusing solely on templating needs within a larger web application, offering a simpler and more lightweight solution for those specific tasks.

In Summary, TypeScript and doT.js differ in their approach to typing, language features, compilation process, community support, error handling, and preferred use cases in development projects.

Advice on doT.js and TypeScript
Needs advice
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TypeScriptTypeScript
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Flow (JS)Flow (JS)

From a StackShare community member: "We are looking to rewrite our outdated front-end with TypeScript. Right now we have a mix of CoffeeScript and vanilla JavaScript. I have read that adopting TypeScript can help enforce better code quality, and best practices. I also heard good things about Flow (JS). Which one would you recommend and why?"

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Replies (14)
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because:

  • incredible developer tooling and community support
  • actively developed and supported by Microsoft (yes, I like Microsoft) ;)
  • easier to make sense of a TS codebase because the annotations provide so much more context than plain JS
  • refactors become easier (VSCode has superb support for TS)

I've switched back and forth between TS and Flow and decided a year ago to abandon Flow completely in favor of TS. I don't want to bash Flow, however, my main grievances are very poor tooling (editor integration leaves much to be desired), a slower release cycle, and subpar docs and community support.

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because it isn't just about validating the types I'm expecting to receive though that is a huge part of it too. Flow (JS) seems to be a type system only. TypeScript also allows you to use the latest features of JavaScript while also providing the type checking. To be fair to Flow (JS), I have not used it, but likely wouldn't have due to the additional features I get from TypeScript.

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David Koblas
VP Engineering at Not disclosed · | 9 upvotes · 161K views
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript
at

We originally (in 2017) started rewriting our platform from JavaScript to Flow (JS) but found the library support for Flow was lacking. After switching gears to TypeScript we've never looked back. At this point we're finding that frontend and backend libraries are supporting TypeScript out of the box and where the support is missing that the commuity is typically got a solution in hand.

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Forrest Norvell
engineering manager at self-employed · | 6 upvotes · 251.1K views
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because the tooling is more mature (the decision to discontinue TSLint in favor of moving all its checks to ESLint is a thoughtful and mature decision), there's a ton of examples and tutorials for it, and it just generally seems to be where the industry is headed. Flow (JS) is a fine tool, but it just hasn't seen the uptake that TS has, and as a result is lacking a lot of the nicer small things, like thorough Visual Studio Code integration, offered by TS.

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

We currently use TypeScript at work. Previously we used Flow (JS) but it was sometimes really difficult to make the types work the way you want. Especially non-trivial types were problematic. And the IDE support wasn't good, Flow took too much resources and sometimes remain stuck and do not show errors (I use Visual Studio Code). With TypeScript we almost do not have these problems. IDE support is superb, working with types is much easier and typing system seems more mature and powerful. There are some downsides (like partion inheritance etc.), but TS team is still pushing it forward. So for me TypeScript is clear winner.

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Tim Abbott
Recommends
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UnderscoreUnderscore
at

We use Underscore because it's a reasonable library for providing all the reasonable helper functions missing from JavaScript ES5 (or that perform poorly if you use the default ES5 version).

Since we're migrating the codebase to TypeScript , we'll likely end up removing most usage of it and ultimately no longer needing it, but we've been very happy with the library.

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because it's adoption by many developers, it's supported by many companies, and it's growth. AngularJS, React, @ASP.NET Core. I started using it in .NET Core, then for a job. Later I added more Angular experience and wrote more React software. It makes your code easier to understand and read... which means it makes other people's code easier to understand and read.

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript for Web Applications and for both frontend and backend because it has a lot of tooling around it and they really got the types and type safety right. Flow (JS) on the other hand lacks tooling and most of the times I scramble to find the right way of building my contracts in which TypeScript is very intuitive and natural. Additionally TypeScript is very similar to Java so your backend engineers and full stack engineers can work with it without much of context switch.

The only time I think Flow shines is (based on probably my outdated knowledge) Flow is/was the only option if you want/wanted to build a React Native application mainly because React Native transpiler at the time I was working with it would only work with flow.

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Frédéric MARAND
Core Developer at OSInet · | 2 upvotes · 133.3K views
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because I tried both on a Meteor project, and found the quantity of errors it enabled us to catch and the simplification of code it allowed was higher than Flow (JS).

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because of broad support, on tools, repos, community ... the only reason to consider flow is if you're a facebook employee

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

If you will start a project from scratch I recommend to use TypeScript. But, If you work with legacy projects written in JavaScript I recommend Flow (JS). Both tools have the same objective: reduce the bad code (which create illegible code, generate bugs e problems to maintenance). Flex helps you to avoid fall in bad codes, but TypeScript prevent you to c you to create bad codes. I believe cause this some JavaScript fans don't like TS, because TS block you to write some types o code. This is the fundamental difference between TS and Flow: Flow avoid problems, but no force. TS force you to prevent problems.

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Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because it's the most mature/issue-free Javascript type-checker available, as far as I've seen.

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Damian Esteban
CTO @ betterPT at BetterPT · | 1 upvotes · 121K views
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript
at

I recommend TypeScript. When used correctly, TypeScript can enable your application to be scalable, easy to refactor, safe, and stable. One of the biggest draws of working with any typed language is that it forces you to think about your functions' inputs and outputs. This is invaluable as it can lead to more declarative, functional style code that ultimately can be easier to reason about.

TypeScript is however not a silver bullet. Just like anything new it takes time to fully understand the concepts of types, interfaces, abstract classes, and enums. In my experience engineers who excel when using TypeScript are those who have experience working with a statically typed language.

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Rafael Avaria
Ingeniero civil en electrónica · | 1 upvotes · 119.8K views
Recommends
on
TypeScriptTypeScript

I use TypeScript because i love to program in Angular and used in node as well

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Decisions about doT.js and TypeScript
Vladyslav Holubiev
Sr. Directory of Technology at Shelf · | 3 upvotes · 137.3K views

As our codebase grew in size, we were looking for ways to improve code quality. We chose TypeScript over Flow due to its rapid industry adoption and overall tools support.

We noticed how different open-source projects were migrating from Flow to TypeScript. Most notably, it was Jest, even though Jest and Flow were both developed by Facebook. See this HN thread if you want to dive into an interesting discussion around this move.

Additionally, at the beginning of 2019, both Babel and ESLint enabled seamless TypeScript support, which allowed easy migration path in a backward-compatible way.

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Oleksandr Fedotov
Senior Software Engineer at joyn · | 4 upvotes · 118.6K views

Initially making a decision to use Flow vs Typescript we decided to go with flow as we wanted our code to run in a way we wrote it, because when using Flow types are simply removed from the code without modifying the code itself. Sadly, the type system of Flow was in some cases very hard to understand and declare the types correctly, especially in cases when the structure is very dynamic (e.g. object keys and values are created dynamically). Another reason was bad integration with IDE and frequent crashes which made DX very poor. Therefore, we made another evaluation of Typescript and decided to move towards it. As our code base was pretty big when we decided to migrate to TS we couldn't just stop and re-write everything, that's why we started writing new modules in Typescript as well as transforming old components. To make that possible we had to configure Webpack loader to support simultaneous bundling of Flow&JS and Typescript. After around 2 months of the transformation we have around 40% of code being written in Typescript and we are more than happy with integration TS has with IDE, as well as ease of declaring types for dynamic modules and functions.

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Pros of doT.js
Pros of TypeScript
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 173
      More intuitive and type safe javascript
    • 105
      Type safe
    • 79
      JavaScript superset
    • 48
      The best AltJS ever
    • 27
      Best AltJS for BackEnd
    • 15
      Powerful type system, including generics & JS features
    • 11
      Compile time errors
    • 11
      Nice and seamless hybrid of static and dynamic typing
    • 10
      Aligned with ES development for compatibility
    • 7
      Angular
    • 7
      Structural, rather than nominal, subtyping
    • 5
      Starts and ends with JavaScript
    • 1
      Garbage collection

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of doT.js
    Cons of TypeScript
      Be the first to leave a con
      • 5
        Code may look heavy and confusing
      • 4
        Hype

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      What is doT.js?

      It is a fastest and concise javascript template engine for Node.js and browsers. It was created in search of the fastest and concise JavaScript templating function with emphasis on performance under V8 and Node.js. It shows great performance for both Node.js and browsers.

      What is TypeScript?

      TypeScript is a language for application-scale JavaScript development. It's a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript.

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      What companies use doT.js?
      What companies use TypeScript?
      See which teams inside your own company are using doT.js or TypeScript.
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      What tools integrate with doT.js?
      What tools integrate with TypeScript?

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      What are some alternatives to doT.js and TypeScript?
      Handlebars.js
      Handlebars.js is an extension to the Mustache templating language created by Chris Wanstrath. Handlebars.js and Mustache are both logicless templating languages that keep the view and the code separated like we all know they should be.
      Mustache
      Mustache is a logic-less template syntax. It can be used for HTML, config files, source code - anything. It works by expanding tags in a template using values provided in a hash or object. We call it "logic-less" because there are no if statements, else clauses, or for loops. Instead there are only tags. Some tags are replaced with a value, some nothing, and others a series of values.
      .NET
      .NET is a general purpose development platform. With .NET, you can use multiple languages, editors, and libraries to build native applications for web, mobile, desktop, gaming, and IoT for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and more.
      Jinja
      It is a full featured template engine for Python. It has full unicode support, an optional integrated sandboxed execution environment, widely used and BSD licensed.
      Pug
      This project was formerly known as "Jade." Pug is a high performance template engine heavily influenced by Haml and implemented with JavaScript for Node.js and browsers.
      See all alternatives