An approach to optimizing TypeScript type checking performance
The article outlines strategies to optimize TypeScript's type checking performance, addressing issues like sluggish IDE responsiveness and compile times, particularly due to performance regressions in TypeScript 5.3.
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The article discusses strategies for optimizing TypeScript's type checking performance, particularly in light of performance regressions introduced in TypeScript 5.3. Developers often face challenges with sluggish IDE responsiveness and extended compile times, which can lead to compiler crashes due to memory exhaustion. The article emphasizes the difficulty of troubleshooting type checking issues compared to runtime performance problems, as conventional debugging methods are less applicable. The authors share their experience in measuring and improving type inference performance, particularly in the context of a complex query builder that utilizes numerous overloads for operators. They highlight the importance of effective workflows and tools for performance measurement, noting that the type checker must evaluate all overloads to find matches, which can degrade performance as the number of overloads increases. The article provides insights into their approach, including the use of simplified examples to illustrate the concepts, and acknowledges contributions from colleagues and the TypeScript team for their support in this endeavor.
- TypeScript type checking performance can significantly impact IDE responsiveness and compile times.
- Performance regressions can occur with updates, necessitating effective measurement and optimization strategies.
- Conventional debugging methods are less effective for type checking issues compared to runtime performance problems.
- The number of overloads in TypeScript can affect type checking performance, requiring careful management.
- Collaboration and support from the community can enhance the development of performance optimization strategies.
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6 commentsI suppose WASM enables layered languages like AssemblyScript comes close in many ways but it's also a bit too separated from the primary webpage use case.
...which has the implication that what TypeScript is actually giving us is a REPL. Our code is increasingly "evaluated" by our IDE, in our hover-overs
I think this is a major reason people like TypeScript so much
Of the performance tips at the end, the interface vs. intersection type one is the suggestion I find the most annoying. That’s because it’s the most common pattern, and using interfaces is conceptually a lot less clean. It’s terrible that a linter effectively forces you into writing worse code.
I really wish the TypeScript team got their act together and fixed the performance of their linter somehow. Finding clever optimizations, porting to Go/Rust, whatever is necessary. (3rd-party reimplementations won’t do: they’ll never catch up with a corporate-funded moving target.)
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