rescript-compiler VS proposal-type-annotations

ReScript is a fully typed language with an easy to understand JS like syntax, blazing fast compiler, that compiles to JavaScript. You can easily drop it into an existing project, and there is even a way to generate TypeScript types if you want to add it to a TypeScript project!

If you’re a front-end developer, you should checkout ReScript[1], supposedly a JS-oriented successor of ReasonML and developed by the ReasonML team.

[1] https://rescript-lang.org/

ReScript is "Fast, Simple, Fully Typed JavaScript from the Future". What that means is that ReScript has a lightning fast compiler, an easy to learn JS like syntax, strong static types, with amazing features like pattern matching and variant types. Until 2020 it was called "BuckleScript" and is closely related to ReasonML.

As another commenter has already suggested, ReasonML has a lot of what you described here.

However, modern JS-oriented toolchain for ReasonML is called ReScript and you can learn more here: https://rescript-lang.org/

ReScript (before BuckleScript) https://rescript-lang.org/ is a functional language that can also use OOP. Ideal for Javascript and Typescript projects, React and servers. It integrates perfectly with Javascript and Typescript code https://rescript-lang.org/docs/react/latest/introduction

Thank you!

We invited Gabriel because we think what he's building is pretty cool. It showcases so much about EdgeDB: its type system, data model, query language, composability, introspection, etc.

I'm not a ReScript user myself. What I know is that it's a functional programming language somewhat heavily inspired by OCaml. Their website goes into details [1]

[1] https://rescript-lang.org/

You might want to look into ReScript (https://rescript-lang.org/). It has strong static typing with type inference, and it is very fast.

This is because a “Tagged Union”, another word for TypeScript’s Discriminated Union, is a way to “tag which one is in use right now… we check the tag to see”. Just like when you’re shopping and check the tag of a piece of clothing to see what the price is, what size it is, or what material it’s made out of. Languages like ReScript compile many of their Unions (called Variants) to JavaScript Objects that have a tag property.

ReScript is "Fast, Simple, Fully Typed JavaScript from the Future". Let's take a look at how we can add it to an existing React project.

REscript

That proposal is not fully compatible with Typescript: https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations?tab=readme...

They held a meeting a few months ago so it's alive but probably still years away.

https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations/issues/184

I particularly like this thread in the TC39 types proposal. TypeScript IS a development trojan horse and locks you into the Microsoft Way of being a JS developer.

Edit: There is a proposal to extend JavaScript with type annotations, which would allow ("a reasonably large subset") of TypeScript to run directly in the browser. Yay!

https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations

More importantly, TypeScript typically commits to build things into itself when the proposal in JavaScript reaches Stage 3. The pattern matching proposal in JavaScript is Stage 1, but depends on many other proposals as well that may or may not need to be at Stage 3 as well for it to work. This particular proposal is interested on pattern matching on JavaScript Objects and other primitives, just like Python does with it’s native primitives. These are also dynamic types which helps in some areas, but makes it harder than others. Additionally, the JavaScript type annotations proposal needs to possibly account for this. So it’s going to be awhile. Like many years.

this is exactly what I want from the _Types as Comments_ proposal[0] as I think it's the only way that types can feasibly become part of the language. It's hard to imagine how all of the concepts TS introduces via special syntax can be covered otherwise.

[0] https://tc39.es/proposal-type-annotations

Crossing my fingers that the proposal for allowing (browser-ignored) type annotations in javascript progresses: https://tc39.es/proposal-type-annotations/

Between that, HTTP2/3 and ES modules many of the downsides for building apps with no compile step are almost completely mitigated.

JSDoc can get you pretty far, but it can be clumsy sometimes. There’s a [TC39 proposal](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations) to allow types to live in JS code and be treated as comments (similar with Python types today)