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> If I would level criticisms at dialyzer it would be its sometimes difficult to read warnings, it’s speed (despite being multithreaded) and the race conditions

> If I would level criticisms at dialyzer it would be its sometimes difficult to read warnings, it’s speed (despite being multithreaded) and the race conditions in the VS Code plugin (which is looking for extra maintainers – if I had time I would help). One of the advantages of TypeScript is that VSCode is written in TypeScript, and both VSCode and TypeScript are developed by the same company, so there's a really nice synergy there. I imagine Kotlin users feel the same way using Jetbrains products, and Swift users feel the same way about XCode. Dialyzer looks interesting, but I can't imagine giving up on the expressiveness of TypeScript. Some of the things you can do with generics, mapped types, intersection types, template literal types, conditional types, and utility types are almost mind boggling. It's difficult to reap all of the benefits of static analysis without some of these advanced type operators. The type manipulation section of the TS manual is really underrated. Someone for example wrote an SQL parser in TypeScript that requires no runtime code [1]. It can infer the types of an SQL query's result based on an SQL string without any runtime code execution. There was a similar project where someone built a JSON parser entirely using the type system [2]. There's also an ongoing discussion on Github about the the fact that TypeScript's type system appears to be a Turing-complete language with some other cool examples [3]. My point is that the type system is incredibly expressive. You rarely run into an idiom that can't be typed effectively. [1] https://github.com/codemix/ts-sql https://github.com/codemix/ts-sql [2] https://twitter.com/buildsghost/status/1301976526603206657 https://twitter.com/buildsghost/status/1301976526603206657 [3] https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/14833 https://github.com/microsoft/TypeScript/issues/14833

h0l0cube 3y ago
The SQL stuff sounds cool, but Ecto is so expressive I don’t even need to resort to raw SQL like I do in other languages. Elixir typing can handle a subset of intersection type which is rather niche, and of course handles union types which are more prevalent. Genetics and inheritance are replaced with a more permissive style of polymorphism with Elixir behaviors and are also part of the typing system. All languages have their own flavor, and their own pros and cons, and if the advanced types of Typescript work for you, then great! In my own experience, I have found Elixir and it’s typing capabilities to work well for me
- Vaguely2178 3y ago
  > The SQL stuff sounds cool, but Ecto is so expressive I don’t even need to resort to raw SQL like I do in other languages. The SQL example I linked to isn't something you'd use to interact with a database in production, for that you'd probably reach for an ORM like Prisma. I was just trying to demonstrate the level of type inference you can achieve with TS. Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. > Elixir typing can handle a subset of intersection type which is rather niche I personally use intersection types quite a bit. If union types are like the logical or operator, then intersection types are like the logical and operator. Being able to define a type that combines one type and another is not a niche workflow for me. > In my own experience, I have found Elixir and it’s typing capabilities to work well for me Can't argue with that! Everyone has their preferences.
  - h0l0cube 3y ago
    > Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. Elixir/Erlang might already be able to do something like this with metaprogramming. It’s certainly possible to generate and run Elixir at compile time, and map types are already a good superset for JSON objects, so a compile time JSON to map could then provide an inferrable type. I think someone more savvy with Elixir would know more. I’d certainly not something that I’ve needed.
  - erszcz 3y ago
    > Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. Going from a JSON string to a type for it is actually one of the easier examples of inference I can imagine. JSON is a data description format in which all the base types are syntactically distinguishable, it has no variables, no arrows (i.e. functions), no generics. In the topic of type inference, you can't have a much easier example. SQL is more complex, indeed, but still doesn't seem too crazy if you have access to table schemas. It's also a matter of whether triggers and stored procedures are taken into account, but I assume they're not. There's a lot of prior art described in literature as well as practical programming implementations with much crazier, yet successfully working type inference.

h0l0cube 3y ago

The SQL stuff sounds cool, but Ecto is so expressive I don’t even need to resort to raw SQL like I do in other languages. Elixir typing can handle a subset of intersection type which is rather niche, and of course handles union types which are more prevalent. Genetics and inheritance are replaced with a more permissive style of polymorphism with Elixir behaviors and are also part of the typing system. All languages have their own flavor, and their own pros and cons, and if the advanced types of Typescript work for you, then great! In my own experience, I have found Elixir and it’s typing capabilities to work well for me

Vaguely2178 3y ago
> The SQL stuff sounds cool, but Ecto is so expressive I don’t even need to resort to raw SQL like I do in other languages. The SQL example I linked to isn't something you'd use to interact with a database in production, for that you'd probably reach for an ORM like Prisma. I was just trying to demonstrate the level of type inference you can achieve with TS. Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. > Elixir typing can handle a subset of intersection type which is rather niche I personally use intersection types quite a bit. If union types are like the logical or operator, then intersection types are like the logical and operator. Being able to define a type that combines one type and another is not a niche workflow for me. > In my own experience, I have found Elixir and it’s typing capabilities to work well for me Can't argue with that! Everyone has their preferences.
- h0l0cube 3y ago
  > Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. Elixir/Erlang might already be able to do something like this with metaprogramming. It’s certainly possible to generate and run Elixir at compile time, and map types are already a good superset for JSON objects, so a compile time JSON to map could then provide an inferrable type. I think someone more savvy with Elixir would know more. I’d certainly not something that I’ve needed.
- erszcz 3y ago
  > Going from a pure string of SQL or JSON to a concrete type without actually executing any runtime code is pretty crazy. Going from a JSON string to a type for it is actually one of the easier examples of inference I can imagine. JSON is a data description format in which all the base types are syntactically distinguishable, it has no variables, no arrows (i.e. functions), no generics. In the topic of type inference, you can't have a much easier example. SQL is more complex, indeed, but still doesn't seem too crazy if you have access to table schemas. It's also a matter of whether triggers and stored procedures are taken into account, but I assume they're not. There's a lot of prior art described in literature as well as practical programming implementations with much crazier, yet successfully working type inference.