TypeScript vs Dart

Differences Between TypeScript vs Dart

TypeScript is an open-source programming language, which is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. It is developed and maintained by Microsoft. Since TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, all existing JavaScript programs are also valid TypeScript programs. TypeScript can be used to develop JavaScript applications for both client-side and server-side execution.

Dart is a general-purpose, class-based, object-oriented programming language with a C-style syntax that is used to build web and mobile applications. It is also utilized for the creation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It is open source and developed by Google and later approved as a standard by ECMA. Dart supports interfaces, abstract classes, generics, static typing, and mixins.

TypeScript can be thought of as JavaScript for application-scale development. It is strongly typed, object-oriented and compiled language. TypeScript also comes along with a set of tools. In another way, TypeScript is JavaScript with some additional features. It is designed for the development of large applications and trans piles to JavaScript. TypeScript compiler is itself written in TypeScript and then compiled to JavaScript.

Dart optionally trans compiles into JavaScript. One can think of Dart as a Google replacement of JavaScript. It was released in October 2011 with an aim to provide the same tools that JavaScript does, only as power tools. Dart has a lot of object-oriented features, which a typical JavaScript programmer might be unfamiliar with.

TypeScript supports the definition files that can contain type information of existing JavaScript libraries. This feature enables programs to use values defined in files as if they were statically typed TypeScript entities. It is included as a first-class programming language in Microsoft Development Studio 2013 and later releases. Anders Hejlsberg designed it at Microsoft, who is also the designer of C#.

Dart is heavily used to create a single page application. These types of applications enable navigation between different screens of a website without loading an entire web page in a browser. For example – in Gmail, clicking on a message in the inbox, the browser stays on the same web page, but JavaScript hides the inbox and brings the message body on screen. When running Dart code into a web browser, the code is precompiled into JavaScript using the dart2js compiler. Since the code is compiled as JavaScript, Dart is compatible with all major browsers, with no need for browsers to adopt Dart.

TypeScript adopts the basic building block of the program from JavaScript. Anyone who knows JavaScript can use TypeScript smoothly since all TypeScript code is converted into JavaScript for execution purpose. Generated JavaScript can reuse all existing JavaScript frameworks, libraries, and tools; thus, any valid .js file can be renamed to .ts and compiled with other TypeScript files. TypeScript is portable across browsers, devices, and operating systems. It does not require a dedicated VM or a specific runtime environment to execute. TypeScript comes with an optional static typing and types inference system through TLS, i.e. TypeScript Language Service.

Head to Head Comparison Between TypeScript and Dart

Below is the top 8 comparison between TypeScript and Dart:

Key Differences Between TypeScript and Dart

Below is the list of points describe the Difference between TypeScript and Dart:

1. TypeScript is a language designed to be a Typed superset of JavaScript; thus, JavaScript is valid TypeScript code, whereas Dart is a full scripting language on its own, not a superset of JavaScript.
2. TypeScript has a lower learning curve since JavaScript is also a valid TypeScript, whereas Dart is a full programming language that gives some extra syntactical features.
3. TypeScript is designed and developed by Microsoft, whereas Dart is taken care of by Google, later approved as a standard by ECMA.
4. TypeScript is ideal for the development of large applications, whereas Dart is ideal for single-page applications like Gmail.
5. TypeScript has optional static typing with support for inheritance and generics, whereas Dart is a single-threaded programming language that has great asynchronous language support.
6. TypeScript has a moderate number of libraries with high-quality definitions, whereas Dart has a comprehensive core library to help with: asynchronous collections, strings, regular expressions, file, math and more.
7. TypeScript being a superset of JavaScript is compatible with all browsers; no specific executables are required on the browser, whereas Dartium is a browser with integrated Dart VM, which allows to run and debug native Dart code.
8. TypeScript has a keyword to tell you what is private, whereas, in Dart, it is a private field if a member is prefixed with _.
9. TypeScript has first-class support for accessing JavaScript libraries, whereas, with Dart, support for calling libraries happens through interoperability libraries built into Dart.
10. TypeScript seems nice and easy if one has a large JavaScript code base that must be scaled and maintained simultaneously, whereas Dart is farther from JavaScript in day-to-day programming compared to TypeScript.

TypeScript and Dart Comparison Table

Following is the Comparison Table Between TypeScript and Dart.

Basis Of Comparison Between TypeScript vs Dart	TypeScript	Dart
Paradigm	Scripting, object-oriented, imperative, functional, generic	Scripting, object-oriented, class-based, functional
Developer	Microsoft	Google
Influence	Influenced by JavaScript, Java, C#	Influenced by C#, Erlang, JavaScript, Smalltalk
License	Apache License 2.0	BSD
Design	Typed superset of JavaScript like CoffeeScript	A full scripting language, not a superset of JavaScript
Learning	Easier to learn for a JavaScript developer	The full programming language, steep learning curve than TypeScript
Execution	Transpiles into JavaScript code	Transcompiles optionally into JavaScript code
Libraries	A moderate number of libraries are available	A higher number of libraries are available as compare to TypeScript

Conclusion

Both TypeScript vs Dart languages were created with an idea to be compiled to JavaScript. TypeScript is a strict superset of JavaScript, and hence its syntax is closer to JavaScript; any developer familiar with JavaScript is most likely to pick up TypeScript. A learning curve is thus very beginner-friendly for TypeScript.

On the other hand, Dart is a completely new language that only happens to compile into JavaScript most of the time. When we peek into the code, it does not look like much of a vanilla JavaScript. Thus, it is comparatively more difficult to pick up by a developer and hence less popular.

Both of them has their own set of libraries and features. Any JavaScript developer, at first glance, tends to go with TypeScript since it is just JavaScript with some additional features. However, although difficult to adopt, Dart has its own set of merits like fast-paced development, a number of libraries, and assistance with single page application. If anyone goes by the amount of benefit Dart brings to the table, learning challenges can be readily accepted. It all depends on the developer’s skills, efficiency and project requirement.

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