Roll back to ES6+. Make TypeScript optional!

[devapp24]

🚀 feature request

Relevant Package

Angular core

Description

Why are all Angular developers forced to use TypeScript?

TypeScript is making Angular much less popular and profitable. Not many business owners want to use TypeScript in their projects. For that reason, AngularJS 1.x is still more popular than Angular 2+ w/ Typescript. The majority of companies, I say over 90%, will still choose ES6+ over typescript.

Describe the solution you'd like

We need ES6+ option in Angular. Please let developers choose between ES6+ and Typescript when starting an Angular project. This is a very urgent update we need in Angular 8. Even if you guys create Angular 10, without ES6+ support, Angular still won't become more popular than AngularJS 1.x. That's completely abnormal. Current job market for Angular 2+ is horrible. It doesn't seem to be profitable at all.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I've been developing with React. It's been more stable experience because it's based on JS and more business owners want React now. However, I would still like to see Angular with ES6+ support. In my opinion, TypeScript is destroying Angular.
Look, now we have Angular 7. But there are still more companies which prefer to use AngularJS 1.x.
This is not very funny. Pushing typescript to Angular was apparently corporation's choice, not community's.

TypeScript is an advanced language but it's not endorsed by the majority of businesses out there. I don't understand why Google want all Angular developers to use typescript?
Please admit Angular with TypeScript is a big failure.. it will never beat AngularJS 1.x and React. Honestly, I feel the whole Angular community is isolated due to TypeScript. Why do we need this when ES6+ can solve any problem and there are more job positions for it?

I'm sure the developer community will welcome ES6+ based Angular 8.
This typescript nonsense should stop here. We need normal/compatible Angular back to community.

[mlc-mlapis]

@devapp24 ... really not sure where do you get the info about The majority of companies, I say over 90%, will still choose ES6+ over typescript. Can you tell us some important data, based on which you build your statement?

[devapp24]

@devapp24 ... really not sure where do you get the info about The majority of companies, I say over 90%, will still choose ES6+ over typescript. Can you tell us some important data, based on which you build your statement?

I see you're based in Czech Republic. I have no information about web development job market in Czech Republic. I've never been there.

Here in North America, out of 300 local web dev jobs, you'll find about 10 Angular front end positions. About 2 out of that 10 positions will demand Angular with typescript. Others will give you an option to use Angular 2+ or just stick with AngularJS 1.x. You'll find maybe 40+ ReactJS positions out of the 300, and 5+ for VueJS. The rest of them may not depend on frontend frameworks and use CMS like Wordpress, Drupal, etc.

TypeScript should be completely optional... it should come as a module that you can install to ES6+ based Angular. Average companies will not require TypeScript.

I've talked to a business owner who made three million dollars by developing Angular JS 1.x apps. He still prefers Angular JS 1.x. He doesn't see Angular with typescript as an upgrade. Many successful companies which built Angular JS 1.x apps now moved to React JS. However, they could give Angular a second thought if Angular 2+ was based on ES6+, not TypeScript.

[mlc-mlapis]

@devapp24 ... hmm, OK, that argumentation sounds certainly valid from your point of view. But there should also be some different point of views (around the whole world) then because if you go through most of the comparisons and analysis, developer studies, ... especially from the mid and large enterprise teams point of views, the fact that Angular is based on TS is always on top of its best features. You can see the same trend in Vue (where the new version will be fully based on TS also) and React actually. So from that point of view, the request to use Angular with only pure ES6+ coding sounds like a minority really.

[devapp24]

@mlc-mlapis

Well, React has a TypeScript npm package you can install. I've seen a few React projects which use TypeScript. I think Angular should come with ES6+ core and give you an option to install TypeScript npm package.

[mlc-mlapis]

@devapp24 ... I mean that Angular is fully written (and Vue will be in a short time) in TS ... and it means also full support for typing through the all its code. So do you really mean that it should be re-written to ES6+ code?

[devapp24]

@devapp24 ... I mean that Angular is fully written (and Vue will be in a short time) in TS ... and it means also full support for typing through the all its code. So do you really mean that it should be re-written to ES6+ code?

Ideally we can request two versions of Angular. ES6+ version and TypeScript version...
or they can create ES6+ version AngularJS.

[dawidgarus]

@devapp24 Ideally ngc should statically analyze JS as it does with TS and generate ngfactory files (or whatever it generates with Ivy). I'm pretty sure this should be possible with es modules using es6 syntax. TypeScript compiler would still be required, but you could write code in pure JS and it would be possible to use Babel.

[devapp24]

FACT: Typescript will never beat Javascript in popularity... that won't happen. Too much have been accomplished/established using JS. It's very rational to make ES6+ based Angular and provide typescript support as an installable package.

[sarunint]

Actually, Angular has been shipping ES2015 code since version 2, and it does not ship TypeScript code. There is also UMD bundles for you to throw that in the script tag and start using Angular in the old way.

But to take the advantage of AoT, you need TypeScript compiler. If you look closely, the only place in Angular that requires TypeScript is @angular/compiler-cli. (Yes, even the compiler itself does not require TypeScript.)

[devapp24]

TypeScript is a cult created by Microsoft. No companies actually need TypeScript to develop a web application.

[manklu]

@devapp24 Nobody actually needs a language to write software. Hex codes are more than enough.

If you don't like it, don't use it.

[devapp24]

@devapp24 Nobody actually needs a language to write software. Hex codes are more than enough.

In the end, this Typescript drama is about two corporations forcing developers to use code language they have developed & invested in for their own interests.

This poor attempt should not be accepted. I hope future Angular users won't have to become ambassadors of this poor code language that represents corporations' interests. The two corporations' greed should not be a part of your business when you develop any web app.

The two corporations, Microsoft and Google, just wanted to create new market for themselves. That's why they have created TypeScript. They used Angular and its developers to promote their own interests.

[bvdmitri]

Actually, almost all features of TypeScript in Angular project is fully optional (decorators is the only exception here). You can simply ignore the fact you are coding in a different programming language because the syntax between TypeScript and ES6+ are the same.

You can also create your TSLint rules to forbid using TypeScript additional features in your project.