Reflection on Typescript
25 Jan 2026
Typescript review
Until this month, I have had zero experience with TypeScript; all I knew was that it was a language used in frontend development. I was expecting a lot of visual elements and a lot of tedious, repetitive code, synonymous with building a house, in how you would design something with TypeScript. I was very surprised by how similar it was to the languages we had previously used, such as Python and Java. While I still believe my expectations will be fulfilled eventually as we progress in creating software, I always thought that the languages used in backend development were completely different, and that if you wanted to create software, you would need both. I now realize that TypeScript has a ton of functionality that seems ideal for all development; the way variables are labeled with types makes everything much more readable and decipherable, and the way errors are shown at compile-time makes it much easier to debug. Compared to JavaScript, TypeScript feels much more friendly to developers because it allows me to see the error before it causes my program to crash. While TypeScript does have its benefits, I still think having to label every variable with a type becomes tedious, especially for smaller or simpler programs. In the future, I would not mind using TypeScript at all, and might even prefer it to JavaScript. I can’t say for sure if my attitude towards this language will continue since I haven’t begun any frontend development, and I am still very inexperienced with the language.
Workout of the day: Is it effective?
While I do believe WoDs are effective at establishing knowledge in your memory, unfortunately, I do not believe they will be effective for me this semester. I’ve always adhered to the fact that learning an hour a day over seven days is much better than learning seven hours one day and taking the rest of the week off. As much as I would like to partake in this type of ‘athletic software engineering’, my current schedule contradicts it. This semester, from Monday to Thursday, as soon as I wake up until I go to sleep, I am engaged in either classes or work. Because of this, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday become the only time where I can freely do work outside of class, which means that I cannot adhere to the WoD schedule at times. In conclusion, while I do believe this type of learning is very effective, my current circumstances prevent me from adhering to the schedule, which creates stress when I need to cram seven days into three.