by DanMJonathan Turner of the TypeScript team has announced the release of v0.8.3 of the TypeScript compiler and Visual Studio extension. You can download it here. This will be the last interim release before the v0.9 releases. Some compiler tweaks have been made in this release as well as two improvements in Visual Studio:
- There was previously a restriction that you could only debug through your TypeScript files if they were part of the project being debugged. This restriction has since been dropped so you can now attach the VS debugger to an instance of Internet Explorer running the project and debug them remotely (even though the instance of IE knows only about the JavaScript files previously generated from the TypeScript).
- The type information displayed when you hover your cursor over TypeScript variables has been embellished further with the variable name and whether the variable is locally declared or not.
Full details of these improvements are recorded here.
Additionally, I’d like to add the following notes for v0.8.3. More...
I am writing this to you from the future. Or at least from a future. The one that British Telecom has created here in Deddington as a template for all the telephone exchanges in the UK. London hopes that it will one day be like us. Probably.
The complete Deddington exchange from Aynho Wharf to the Barfords will be totally enabled with the completion of phase three – the old half of Deddington – some time in March. Then we have two years to switch our phones and internet connections over to fibre optic before they remove all the copper wiring in the area. There is no coming back from the future here you know. More...
The bugger about writing a book on an open source project is that it keeps developing while you are writing, proofing, copyediting and finally printing. This strategy can and does bite you on the arse, and has done me frequently. Two cases spring to mind:
- A book on Microsoft’s .NET My Services, codename Hailstorm back in 2001. FOur of us wrote it in six weeks based on the latest bits in time for PDC, met the deadline and got it published. Then found out as the book went to the show that Microsoft had completely axed the entire project.
- A book on the open source wiki software Zope which spent so long trying to catch up with the terrifyingly frequent software releases being made to Zope at the time, that the whole project imploded.
It’s not a surprise that there are already some addenda for ‘
TypeScript Revealed’. It’s just disappointing that
TypeScript v0.8.2 was released the same day as the book was and includes a couple of main new features which I would have certainly included were they available at the time.
There’s always something that picks at your brain. Quite recently, apropos of nothing, it’s this article from Nate Lanxon of Wired UK. A little bit of legacy later and I have a new pair of headphones around my neck replacing the Sennheiser HD-490s I’d had for some seven or eight years previously. The Denon AH-D600s are, quite literally, a different level, sonically and price-wise. They’re £500 RRP but can be had for substantially less if you search around.
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It's only been a few months since TypeScript was released on October 1 last year, but I'm pleased to say that my new book 'TypeScript Revealed' is being published on January 23 by Apress. I think my original title, 'A First Look At TypeScript' is a more accurate description of its contents, but there are series titles to be considered :-) It's a modest 100 pages or so and is available in both paper and e-book formats. It covers up to v0.8.1.1.
The book is aimed directly at .NET programmers who've needed to use JavaScript in the past but haven't really gone any further with it. It won't teach you JavaScript from scratch but it will use the C# and VB.NET syntax you're familiar with to introduce the new syntax features that TypeScript adds to JavaScript. It will also help you integrate TypeScript into your existing web and Windows 8 application projects and point you in the right direction of the key discussions and bugs on Codeplex and the community efforts on github.
Download the code samples for this book (175 KB)
Here's the full table of contents:
- What is TypeScript?
Covers the need for TypeScript, what it does and doesn't do, and how to install it in Visual Studio, node.js, and Sublime Text - The New Syntax
Covers the type system, functions (parameter types, overloading and arrow), classes, interfaces, modules and features yet to come. Also notes the refactoring options in Visual Studio. - Working With TypeScript
Covers the compiler, generating \ sourcing declaration files, integrating TypeScript into your own projects, and how it fits into the development lifecycle.
Apress' official page for the book. Please use this link to submit any errata for this book.
I've also started a Facebook page for the book containing any new TypeScript articles and links.
Buy it on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, and Book Depository (UK)