highlightjs/highlight.js

Future: Possibly more automated type compilation

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#3,157 opened on Apr 21, 2021

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 (4 comments) (1 reaction) (1 assignee)JavaScript (22,960 stars) (3,497 forks)batch import
good first issuehelp welcomepackage/buildparser

Description

Getting access to the types in my main source. My source is all JS, it exports no types... all the type exports are ambient modules.

I’m proposing the inverse: define your types in your code.

I dunno what that means? You mean declare them in highlight.js itself and then export them, import them into index.d.ts and then reexport them? I'm not sure I know how to do that if that's possible - or advisable?

Indeed: write them in JavaScript. No need to add a manual index.d.ts: typescript can compile javascript and generate that index.d.ts.

Here’s a smaller example: https://github.com/words/levenshtein-edit-distance/commit/2c3d890068b0d9405881a94f1439b31f8d08c392. Lowlight is a bit more involved. A bit more complex is unist-util-select: https://github.com/syntax-tree/unist-util-select/commit/4c1b02e34f849394bc90b42ea3bce0f52d9b2512. And quite complex is xdm: https://github.com/wooorm/xdm.

I am not a fan of typescript. I personally don’t really love types either. But they are somewhat useful — especially for newcomers to a giant ecosystem (unified). I think types through jsdoc in javascript is rather nice: code is directly runnable, no building needed. But everything is still type checked by typescript (and I like type-coverage to ensure everything is completely typed). It ensures .d.ts are kept up to date and work

Some more info here: https://github.com/voxpelli/types-in-js

Originally posted by @wooorm in https://github.com/highlightjs/highlight.js/issues/3131#issuecomment-824157692

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascripttypescript
Domain
toolingdeveloper experiencebuild system
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
half day
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
needs investigation
Prerequisites
JavaScriptTypeScriptJSDochighlight.js internals
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
35
Research direction
Review the referenced examples (levenshtein edit distance, unist util select, xdm) to understand how they use JSDoc to generate .d.ts files. Examine highlight.js's current type definitions in index.d.ts and the repository's type setup. Check the linked comment in issue #3131 for context on maintainer opinions. Determine if a similar approach is feasible and what changes would be needed in the codebase.