Session about TypeScript and SharePoint by Martin Groblschegg
Short introduction about TypeScript
TypeScript is a free and open source programming language developed by Microsoft. It is a strict superset of JavaScript, and essentially adds optional static typing and class-based object oriented programming to the language. Anders Hejlsberg, lead architect of C#, has worked on development of TypeScript.
TypeScript extends JavaScript syntax, so any existing JavaScript programs work with TypeScript without any changes. TypeScript is designed for development of large applications and when compiled it produces JavaScript to ensure compatibility. [1]
Or in my words: It let you write manageable, typed JavaScript. Awesome.
Tooling
Visual Studio Plugin and you get almost real-time conversation from TypeScript to JavaScript.
In order to get compiler/intellisense support for SharePoint JSOM you need the definition files for it. They are available here.
Very cool is that you can debug the TypeScript code in Visual Studio – no need to understand the generated code (imho: it helps a lot). To get that you have to enable the map file generation in the plugins settings.
Key takeaway
Compiler safety and intellisense is a great benefit for bigger projects – I think I will invest some…