TypeScript Origins: The Documentary

I watched yesterday’s 80 minute TypeScript documentary, TypeScript Origins: The Documentary. TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript that transpiles, with static typing, into JavaScript so it can run inside a web browser.

The enlightening part of this documentary is that it starts with Microsoft employees talking about what a paradigm shift it was for Microsoft to embrace open source software development. It highlights the differences in leadership between Gates/Ballmer and Satya Nadella who took over as CEO in 2014. Nadella saw the importance and power of goodwill with open source while transitioning the company to providing cloud services. That’s a huge culture shift for a behemoth company like Microsoft which is one of the largest companies in the world. 

It’s interesting to see how a company, like Google, has shifted away from, “Don't be evil,” while Microsoft has become more open and supportive of the developer community. 

Everything They Wanted to Be

1. Java became what Ada wanted to be. Write once, run everywhere. 


2. Javascript became what Java applets wanted to be. Mobile code in a web browser.


3. REST became what SOAP wanted to be. Remote procedure calls with data over the Web.


4. JSON became what XML wanted to be. Human readable, machine to machine data exchange.