Using both coffeescript and typescript on the same project

Question

I m actually trying to work with both coffeescript and typescript in the same project.

In fact, I want to be able to chose which one I prefer when coding.

The fact is that the javascript generated by typescript doesn't seem to work as expected with the javascript generated with coffeescript

Explanation :

I wrote a Controller class with coffeescript which works perfectly when I extend it in a coffeescript file like below :

Controller = require('../node_modules/Controller/Controller')

class HelloController extends Controller

  indexAction: (name) =>
     console.log 'hey '+ name

module.exports = HelloController

But when I try to use it with typescript like below :

import Controller = require('../node_modules/Controller/Controller');

export class HelloController extends Controller {

    constructor() {
        super()
    }

    indexAction(name:String) {
        console.log('hey '+name);
    }
}

I got an error telling me that the controller cant be find at the expected place (the .js file is well generated)

Can you help me ?

Answer 1

If you want to do this, you'll need to supply type information about the Coffeescript-generated JavaScript file.

If you add a Controller.d.ts you can describe the types in your controller file so TypeScript can apply that type information during compilation.

For example:

declare class Controller {
    protected name: string;
    //... more type information
}

export = Controller;

Of course, you are essentially undertaking far more work writing JavaScript or Coffeescript and then also writing type information in another file - so you may want to make a decision on a per-unit basis about what you are going to write the program in. For example, if you write a tool-kit in Coffeescript, it is easy to write a single .d.ts file for it - whereas if you write a file here and there in Coffeescript you're going to have a bit of a maintenance nightmare (either creating lots of .d.ts files or managing a single merged one each time you change one of the parts).

Definition files work best against a stable API.