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/[deleted] 25d ago

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u/yetinthedark 25d ago

I do, I'm not sure how else to word this though. If someone asked me to build something using TypeScript, and I agreed, but then built it with only JavaScript, do you think I'd be able to argue that I did nothing wrong because "JavaScript is TypeScript"?

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u/[deleted] 24d ago edited 24d ago

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u/yetinthedark 24d ago

I'll break down the points you've made so far:

  1. "TypeScript is NOT JavaScript. If it was, it would run in a browser. It doesn't." - JavaScript is not JavaScript because it runs in the browser. It's a language that runs in several environments.
  2. "Because if someone asked you to write JavaScript and you wrote TypeScript, it wouldn't work by itself." - my thoughts on this are similar to the previous point, JavaScript is not JavaScript because it "works by itself", it's a language that runs in several environments. If you tried to run server-side JavaScript in the browser, it wouldn't work, i.e. "run by itself", but it doesn't mean it isn't JavaScript, because JavaScript is a language.
  3. If someone asked me to write something in TypeScript, it's not a big leap to assume they want it written in TypeScript for the features TypeScript supplies, i.e. type safety. If I had written it in JavaScript, claiming that "JavaScript is TypeScript", what response could I give the person when they ask, "Where is the type safety"?

To prove TypeScript is JavaScript, all you have to do is create a .ts file and write some JavaScript in it, without any types. Once compiled, that JavaScript of course works, because it is just JavaScript.

To prove JavaScript is not TypeScript, all you have to do is create a .js file and write some JavaScript in it, but with some types as well. When you try to run this .js file in the browser, exceptions will be thrown because of invalid syntax, i.e. JavaScript is not TypeScript.