Podd: TypeScript.fm - The Friendly Show for TypeScript Developers

Compilers, Runtimes, and Funtimes | Ep 5

17 februari 2025 | 64 min

This week Kamran and Erik try to dissect the complex landscape of JavaScript and TypeScript compilers, transpilers, interpreters, engines, and runtimes (oh my!). What are the tools, what are they used for, why is the world so complicated, and what should you care about as a TS developer?

(04:55) - This Week in TypeScript: Node.js Corepack Issue Affects Users
(06:16) - This Week in TypeScript: Vite and Vitest Security Vulnerabilities
(07:18) - This Week in TypeScript: 2ality on Enum Patterns
(08:51) - This Week in TypeScript: 2ality's Tutorial on Publishing ESM Packages with TypeScript
(09:53) - This Week in TypeScript: Should We Move On to ESM-Only?
(13:13) - This Week in TypeScript: HTTP2 Support Across Node.js, Bun, and Deno... Or Lack Thereof
(14:14) - This Week in TypeScript: Nx Has Some New TypeScript Monorepo Guides
(14:38) - This Week in TypeScript: Zero to Mastery Shares a TypeScript Cheat Sheet
(15:09) - This Week in TypeScript: TS Comment Directives
(17:21) - Deep Dive: Compilers and Runtimes
(19:32) - Deep Dive: What's the Difference Between a Compiler and Transpiler?
(21:11) - Deep Dive: Why Do We Need a TypeScript Compiler?
(22:02) - Deep Dive: The TypeScript Compiler (TSC)
(23:38) - Deep Dive: What's an Interpreter?
(25:06) - Deep Dive: What's an Engine?
(27:52) - Deep Dive: Recap So Far
(28:31) - Deep Dive: Babel, the OG Transpiler
(29:23) - Deep Dive: What is SWC?
(31:12) - Deep Dive: Using the verbatimModuleSyntax TSConfig Flag
(32:35) - Deep Dive: What is esbuild?
(34:23) - Deep Dive: Okay, What's the Difference Between SWC and esbuild?
(35:51) - Deep Dive: So, What is oxc Then??
(37:03) - Deep Dive: Erik Says checker.ts is "Gigundous" (???)
(37:58) - Deep Dive: Wait, oxc Can Output Type Declarations?!
(39:34) - Deep Dive: Writing Your TypeScript So It Compiles Faster
(41:10) - Deep Dive: What Does deno compile Do?
(42:12) - Deep Dive: What Are The Different JS/TS Runtimes?
(43:43) - Deep Dive: What Differentiates Bun from Deno?
(45:26) - Deep Dive: Serverless JavaScript Runtimes (workerd, Vercel Edge)
(46:48) - Deep Dive: Writing Isomorphic JavaScript or TypeScript
(47:44) - Deep Dive: Who Will Stop This Madness?
(50:11) - Deep Dive: Should Microsoft "Fix" TSC?
(53:43) - Deep Dive: WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?
(57:36) - Secrets of the Handbook: Named Tuple Values
(01:00:59) - Cool Stuff: Node ES Language Support Matrix
(01:01:46) - Cool Stuff: VSCode Pretty TS Error Extension

Week of February 3, 2025

📌 PSA: Node.js LTS corepack registry key signing issue breaks people's CI/CD pipelines and npm/pnpm installations. If you are affected, check this issue out! It’s fixed now and backported to Node 20.18.3.
📌 PSA: There was a remote code execution vulnerability in Vitest, and a Vite dev server vulnerability. Update to the latest patch versions!

Community Highlights

Blog Post: TypeScript enums: use cases and alternatives (Axel Rauschmayer)
Blog Post: Tutorial: publishing ESM-based npm packages with TypeScript (Axel Rauschmayer)
Blog Post: Move on to ESM-only (Anthony Fu)
Blog Post: Fetch and HTTP/2 support in Node.js, Bun and Deno (George Haidar)
Learning: Nx is doing cool stuff for TS monorepo setups and has a whole series on it
Cheatsheet: Bookmark this TypeScript Cheat Sheet by Zero to Mastery (PDF version available)
Book: Joshua Goldberg has a new Learning TypeScript book and shares a tip about TS comments

Compilers and Runtimes Deep Dive

The JavaScript Runtime Environment (Jamie Uttariello)
Wikipedia: ECMAScript Engines
V8's interpreter, Ignition
Hermes engine for React Native
TSC, the official Microsoft TypeScript compiler
SWC, a Rust-based compiler for JavaScript and TypeScript
esbuild, a Go-based compiler for JavaScript and TypeScript
oxc, a (new) Rust-based compiler by the creators of Vite
Deno compile for creating binary executables
Bun runtime, a drop-in replacement for Node
workerd runtime by Cloudflare
Vercel Edge Runtime
A list of WebAssembly (WASM) runtimes
WinterTC, a committee for unifying server backend runtime APIs

Links

TypeScript 4.0's labeled tuple elements (playground link)
Wondering what version of Node supports what ES features and syntax? https://node.green/
Replace those ugly TS errors in VSCode with something more pretty

Sponsored by Excalibur.js
Excalibur.js is the friendly TypeScript game engine for making 2D web games. Use your TypeScript or JavaScript skills to make games! Excalibur comes out-of-the-box with everything you need to make web games, like physics, sprites, animations, sound effects, input, and particles. Design your assets with tools like Aseprite and Tiled, then load them natively using first-party plugins.

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)

Creators & Guests

Kamran Ayub - Host
Erik Onarheim - Host

You Say Vite, I Say Vite | Ep 4

10 februari 2025 | 54 min

This week Erik and Kamran talk about Vite (Vight? Veet?), what it's good for, how it works, and its status as the "go-to" tool for frontend tooling.

(04:21) - This Week in TypeScript: TS 5.8 Beta
(11:02) - This Week in TypeScript: Ruck 9 Released
(12:39) - This Week in TypeScript: Type Stripping in the Browser
(14:45) - Community Highlight: Deno and Qwik Video
(15:52) - Community Highlight: Zig, TypeScript, and WASM by David Bushell
(16:49) - New Library Watch: tsc-extra
(17:24) - New Library Watch: typemap and typebox
(18:23) - Vite Overview
(22:01) - Vite: Getting Started
(22:53) - Vite: build and preview
(23:34) - Vite: How Does It Work?
(26:57) - Vite: Support for Libraries and Frameworks
(28:04) - Vite 6.0: Environments API
(30:27) - Vite 6.0: Support for Additional HTML Asset References
(31:28) - Vite: Testing with Vitest
(32:48) - Vite Gripes and Gotchas
(33:52) - Vite Gripes: Dev and Prod Build Inconsistencies
(35:14) - Vite Gotcha: Forgetting to Set a URL Base
(35:49) - Vite Gotcha: Targeting Legacy Browsers
(38:30) - Vite Gripes: npm linking
(41:43) - Vite's Future: What Are We Excited About?
(44:12) - Secrets of the Handbook: Type Guards and Predicates
(47:27) - Cool Stuff: Write Typesafe Emails with React.email
(49:51) - Cool Yet Questionable Stuff: Custom Type Errors When Working With Generics

Week of January 27

News: TS 5.8 Beta Released
News: Ruck 9, a Deno web framework
News: Guy Bedford releases [email protected], allowing type stripping in the browser
Community: Qwik and Deno (📸 Video)
Community: Benchmarking Zig, TS and WASM by David Bushell (✍️ Blog Post)
New Libraries
- tsc-extra
  - Static analysis tool, type checking only, no code generation or compiling
  - Useful for documentation or lower-level TS tools
- Typemap is like a Zod alternative, built for TypeBox
  - “It offers a common TypeScript syntax for type construction, a runtime compiler for high-performance validation and type translation from one library to another.”

Vite Deep Dive

Homepage
Evan You's State of Vite 2023 Keynote (📸 Video)
Why Use Vite?
Vite 6 Updates
Sapphi-Red's Increasing Vite's Potential With the Environment API (✍️ Blog Post)
Vite's browser compatibility
Vite's future, bundling with Rolldown

Links

Handbook: Type Guards and Predicates
Send typesafe emails with React.email
Better string literal errors (📸 Video)

Sponsored by Excalibur.js
Excalibur.js is the friendly TypeScript game engine for making 2D web games. Use your TypeScript or JavaScript skills to make games! Excalibur comes out-of-the-box with everything you need to make web games, like physics, sprites, animations, sound effects, input, and particles. Design your assets with tools like Aseprite and Tiled, then load them natively using first-party plugins.

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)

Creators & Guests

Kamran Ayub - Host
Erik Onarheim - Host

We Don’t Talk About Deno-no-no | Ep 3

3 februari 2025 | 52 min

This week Erik and Kamran make poor dad jokes, talk about Deno, and tour its ecosystem. If you're new to Deno, this will be a great introduction!

(00:00) - We Don't Talk About Deno-no-no-no | Ep 3
(06:54) - This Week in TypeScript: Bun 1.2 Released
(10:54) - This Week in TypeScript: 5.8's ErasableSyntaxOnly Flag
(14:57) - This Week in TypeScript: Tailwind 4 Released
(16:26) - This Week in TypeScript: Vitest 3 Released
(17:17) - Errors and Corrections
(18:46) - Deep Dive Into Deno
(22:19) - Deno's Integrated CLI
(23:50) - Deno CLI: deno run
(24:28) - Deno CLI: deno add, install, remove, uninstall
(25:01) - Deno CLI: deno task
(26:19) - Deno CLI: deno test
(27:18) - Deno CLI: deno fmt, deno lint, and deno check
(28:15) - Deno CLI: deno serve
(29:26) - Deno CLI: deno doc
(30:07) - Deno CLI: deno bench
(31:24) - Deno's Standard Library
(33:21) - Deno CLI: deno compile
(36:24) - Deno's Performance
(37:32) - What is Deno Fresh?
(38:17) - What is JSR?
(39:43) - What is Deno Deploy?
(40:38) - Moving from Node to Deno as a Developer
(45:48) - Deno CLI: deno upgrade
(47:13) - What Are We Excited About In the Future With Deno
(48:13) - Secrets of the Handbook: TSConfig's extendedDiagnostic
(50:12) - Cool Stuff: Serve a Folder in a Single Deno Command
(50:44) - Cool Stuff: Flappy Bird Clone in Deno Compile

News

Deno Deep Dive

Deno’s 2024 in review blog post
Rusty v8 -- Rust bindings for V8
Deno CLI docs
Performance
Deno Fresh
JSR
Deno Deploy
Kamran's Advent of Code 2024 repo using Deno

Links

Learn Vim’s keyboard shortcuts with Vim Adventures
Minnesota's Art Shanty Projects during the winter
Secrets of the Handbook: TSConfig – extendedDiagnostics
Alias to serve a folder using a single Deno command like npx serve (h/t Kamran)
Deno Compile video with Flappy Bird

Sponsored by Excalibur.js
Excalibur.js is the friendly TypeScript game engine for making 2D web games. Use your TypeScript or JavaScript skills to make games! Excalibur comes out-of-the-box with everything you need to make web games, like physics, sprites, animations, sound effects, input, and particles. Design your assets with tools like Aseprite and Tiled, then load them natively using first-party plugins.

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)

Creators & Guests

Kamran Ayub - Host
Erik Onarheim - Host

Node 23 Gets TypeScript Support, Mostly | Ep 2

27 januari 2025 | 37 min

In this episode, Kamran and Erik discuss the newly released TypeScript support with Node 23.6 and its implications. What's supported? What's not supported? And how does it differ from Bun or Deno?

(00:00) - Ep 2 - Node 23 Gets TypeScript Support
(00:05) - Introduction
(04:04) - TypeScript News and Announcements
(10:27) - A Closer Look at Type Stripping for Node 23
(22:56) - Differences Between Node 23 and Deno 2
(30:22) - Cool TypeScript Stuff

News

Everything You Need to Know About Node.js Type Stripping by Marco Ippolito
- Node 23.6.0 Release Notes -- The one with TypeScript support
- Docs: Node 23 “Modules: TypeScript”
- Node's new built-in support for TypeScript by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer
Native Typescript support coming to Eleventy by Zach Leatherman (PR)
ESLint 9.18 – Zero-config TypeScript support by Andrey Sitnik
TypeScript 5.8: Erasable Syntax Only
PSA: Create React App doesn’t work with React 19, use Vite!

Errata

19:11 -- We incorrectly assumed that TSC is used for the transpilation in Node 23, but that's not true. SWC still handles the transpilation (if the flag is used) so Node's TypeScript support does not rely on TSC at all. Reported by: Marco Ippolito

Cool Stuff

Jiti: A Node.js package for ESM and TypeScript support
Example of `satisfies never` with switch statements by Cecile Muller, Bluesky
- What is the “satisfies” type constraint? By Matt Pocock
Dockview – npm package for a TypeScript native window manager
Using “as const” for config typing by Matt Pocock

Sponsored by Excalibur.js
Excalibur.js is the friendly TypeScript game engine for making 2D web games. Use your TypeScript or JavaScript skills to make games! Excalibur comes out-of-the-box with everything you need to make web games, like physics, sprites, animations, sound effects, input, and particles. Design your assets with tools like Aseprite and Tiled, then load them natively using first-party plugins.

Music
Seahorse Dreams by Kubbi (Spotify)

Creators & Guests

Kamran Ayub - Host
Erik Onarheim - Host

Two TypeScript Fools, One Podcast | Ep 1

27 januari 2025 | 43 min

TypeScript.fm – The Friendly Show for TypeScript Developers

The two TypeScript Fools, Kamran Ayub and Erik Onarheim, get together once a week to bring you news, updates, and interviews about TypeScript and the broader web development ecosystem.

Om podden

Avsnitt

Compilers, Runtimes, and Funtimes | Ep 5

You Say Vite, I Say Vite | Ep 4

We Don’t Talk About Deno-no-no | Ep 3

Node 23 Gets TypeScript Support, Mostly | Ep 2

Two TypeScript Fools, One Podcast | Ep 1