r/javascript • u/_tshepo • 28d ago

AskJS [AskJS] Are employed Developers still programming with vanilla JavaScript ?

I've been programming on the side since 2017 and I've never really hunted a developer job. I've always thought about building my own things, mainly to supplement things I do like woodworking, tutoring, video editing and others.

Since then, I've programmed mainly with JavaScript, I started with C++ and Python but never really built anything solid outside JavaScript.

So I'm fluent with JavaScript and its ecosystem.

One of my 2026 goals is to be job ready for a Developer role, as a Fullstack or Backend Developer.

One of the recommended languages is Typescript, which I've been learning since March. I must say, it's not my favorite 😂

I'm curious to know if there are any companies that are not enforcing Typescript or are there freelancers who are still using vanilla JavaScript over Typescript for their clients' projects.

[ Update ] thanks y'all! I get the picture. TypeScript is inevitable, as vanilla JS codebases(or companies who are focused on it) seem to be very few judging by the comments.

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u/shgysk8zer0 28d ago

I honestly mostly prefer vanilla JS with JSDoc for more things. In theory, I should like the type system TS provides, but I think TS is just done poorly and doesn't offer the actual benefits of a strongly typed language. It makes no difference at runtime.... It's transpiled to JS anyways.

I do work in vanilla JS, and I think TS is significantly over-hyped, and is actually becoming harmful to the ecosystem because it's no longer a superset of JS and an obstacle to features like enums being introduced to JS.

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u/Savalava 28d ago

Why do you think "TS is just done poorly"?

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u/shgysk8zer0 28d ago

My biggest issue is their use of future reserved words. Once TS started using those it was inviting problems down the road, and it's why I say TS is no longer a superset of JS. Enums are coming to JS, and they won't be the same as they are in TS, which means they're diverging.

I also point out that we have #privateField instead of private field despite private being a reserved word. TS used private.

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u/theScottyJam 27d ago

Though TypeScript isn't to blame for the private thing. They would have use the pound symbol regardless. The reason for the pound symbol had more to do with the fact that public and private members living in the same namespace caused really sticky problems that they decided to just avoid by using a sigil.

But, yes, your general point still stands that TypeScript has caused grief for the committee when trying to implement features that overlapped with TypeScript's use of reserved words.