Didn't get the impression OP meant otherwise. Read it more like "large javascript codebases" where types weren't possible before.

Yeah, it's just funny how the JavaScript community is all jumping on the types bandwagon right now and acting like it's some new discovery or something.

I don't understand this type of negativity.

It's possible for someone to be an expert in both JavaScript and OCaml. Or any language. The JavaScript language is both approachable and in wide use, attracting not only novices, but experts from many domains.

It seems silly to assume the "JavaScript community" is no more than its lowest common denominator of novice programmers, jumping on bandwagons without any historical context. People are jumping on bandwagons, sure. But every bandwagon needs a driver, who by necessity must be an expert in multiple domains.

The people pushing these trends are not naive to their historical context. They simply see practical benefits worthy of experimentation, and they don't let emotional attachments to their knowledge cloud their judgment.

Why do you sound aggrieved about it? Types _are_ new for javascript. Until a few years ago there was no way to build for the web using a typed language unless you were using things like GWT or Haxe.

So, there were type languages that compiled to JavaScript.

I work on Reason, so I think I'm relatively unbiased enough to address this. JavaScript's widely popular, disregarding why it's come to be this way. Any language this popular (and with a history of being used in a different context, nonetheless) ends up having warts and being used by folks who are sometimes less skilled.

In that regard, "jumping on the types bandwagon like it's some new discovery" is exactly right, because it's indeed lots of people's first language. But I don't see why this should sound so negative. Newcomers are now introduced to types and they're amazed by them. That's welcomed and we shouldn't feel they're taking away our own shiny toy and tainting them or whatever.

I think it pays to be nice to beginners. Sure, you don't get the usual quality you're looking for in a niche expert language where communications are atomic, on-point, and lossless, but that's _OK_. All in all, things like a better type system, better language semantics and better paradigms are still worth fighting for.

Nobody is acting like it's a new discovery. They're acting like it's newly possible in the Javascript eco-system..which is true.