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A comment on Flow vs. Typescript. Parent comment

Re:Flow vs. Typescript by k__ on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:21AM (#11845502)
Most static type systems really suck and I can fully understand why dynamic-coders don't like them.

It often feels like they are holding you back more than they help.

I also got such a moment with TypeScript.

    const a = A()
    a.b = new SubtypeOfB()
    a.b.attributeOfSubtypeOfB = 123 //error
Because a.b is type B and not SubtypeOfB and so doesn't have the attribute of SubtypeOfB, but a.b gets its typing from A, which can't be changed on the fly later.

The solution was:

    const a = A()
    const b = new SubtypeOfB()
    b.attributeOfSubtypeOfB = 123 //here TS thinks it is SubtypeOfB
    a.b = b //now TS thinks it's B
Which felt like "Why do I have to restructure my code with extra variables when I clearly know that this object HAS that attribute?!"

And Java was full of those problems. Numerous different definitions of the same thing that aren't compatible with each other. Hell, some languages even have different string types.

But yeah, TypeScript is generally chill about most things and the hints it gives me were often right and helped to find the right methods without consulting any docs, which is a huge win, even without the refactoring stuff.

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Re:Flow vs. Typescript by benjoffe on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:38AM (#11845550)
You can also use 'type assertions' to minimise restructuring, eg, the following is the same number of lines as your first example (and compiles to identical code):

    const a = A()
    a.b = new SubtypeOfB()
    (<SubtypeOfB> a.b).attributeOfSubtypeOfB = 123 //works
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Re:Flow vs. Typescript by k__ on Monday June 06, 2016 @06:11AM (#11845642)
Isn't this dangerous?
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Re:Flow vs. Typescript by hizanberg on Monday June 06, 2016 @06:53AM (#11845790)
No, you're just telling TypeScript you know what Type it is and it will let you treat it as that Type.
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Re:Flow vs. Typescript by imtringued on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:34AM (#11845539)
I would recommend you to always do the initialisation through the constructor and preferably make the entire class immutable if you can.
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Re:Flow vs. Typescript by k__ on Monday June 06, 2016 @05:51AM (#11845583)
That's the problem, it is a 3rd party lib.

My own code doesn't give me typing headaches most of the time, but such things.

[ Parent | on HN ]